Overhauling a Department Despite the Odds
Here’s how this year’s winner of the Campus Safety Director of the Year, Higher Education award transformed his agency while overcoming significant challenges.
Relationships, Small Grants Help Fill the Gaps
Large grants, however, weren’t the only sources of income for Nicholls State PD. Jaccuzzo also went after smaller amounts. For example, his agency applied for $1,300-$8,000 grants from the Department of Highway Safety.
“I went for service oriented grants, which would help us with student alcohol and drug awareness. These grants allowed us to purchase radars for our cars, barricades, carts and education/intervention/prevention materials.”
The fact that Jaccuzzo was hired from the local community also helped him find funding.
“I was pretty much a grassroots police chief because I’m from a community relatively close to Nicholls,” he says. “I knew all the local politicians and law enforcement executives, which put me ahead of the game.”
His relationships with other law enforcement agencies have come in handy, particularly when grant funding is not available. Sheriffs from surrounding parishes have assigned officers and investigators to Nicholls State at no charge. Biometric equipment was issued by the state police. One department provided additional two-way radios.
“Never before has our police department been involved and included in all levels of government as it is now,” says Tullis.
Police Officers Embrace Community Policing
Technology and relationships with other agencies are all well and good, but when it comes to daily patrols, the most valuable resource a police chief can have is his or her officers. Jaccuzzo understood this when he started as chief and immediately went to work implementing in-service training. Now, his officers have up-to-date certifications with their firearm, legal and first aid training. Student officers also receive training. The chief has a database that manages all of the officer education, letting him know when each staff member needs to be recertified.
There is also a focus on proactive, positive communications, Dial claims. Officers now regularly interact with the community and are doing a much better job of responding to calls.
“Initially, when [Jaccuzzo] took over, one of the complaints the department had was, ‘We call and we never know what the end result is.’ They’ve done a lot better at following up with people who file complaints, whether there is a resolution to the complaint or not,” Dial says.
The improved training could be one reason why Nicholls State was rated by a local television station as the university with the lowest crime rate in the area. It also led to the successful apprehension of a rapist who was a police officer from another jurisdiction.
“In December 2010, one of my lieutenants was patrolling and saw a police unit running with the lights outside of a residential hall,” Jaccuzzo explains. “He then sees an officer walking out of the building. He tells [the Nicholls State officer] he was bringing a student who was drunk home from downtown and she was OK. Our officer followed up on the case and found the student. We arrested that officer [from the other jurisdiction] for raping a female who was intoxicated.
“The norm would have been, ‘Look, that’s a fellow police officer, everything is fine,’ but now our officers investigate matters that are suspicious at all levels.”
Besides his family and his faith, Jaccuzzo is most proud of how well his staff performed during the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, as well as the progress his department has made over the past several years.
He is extremely appreciative of his staff’s dedication, especially when he considers his department’s budget constraints and lack of raises for officers.
“I’m proud of them the most for sticking around,” he says. “Our true success is based on each one of them.”
(Read how Nicholls State handled the Westboro Baptish Church demonstrators. Visit www.campussafetymagazine.com/NichollsWestboro.)
Law Requires Sex Offenders to Register With Police
Nicholls State Chief Craig Jaccuzzo authored legislation requiring all sex offenders to register with campus police when they become a student, volunteer or employee of the campus. In 2011, the bill became law.
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About the Author
Robin Hattersley, Editor-in-Chief
Robin has been covering the security and campus law enforcement industries since 1998 and is a specialist in school, university and hospital security, public safety and emergency management, as well as emerging technologies and systems integration. She joined CS in 2005 and has authored award-winning editorial on campus law enforcement and security funding, officer recruitment and retention, access control, IP video, network integration, event management, crime trends, the Clery Act, Title IX compliance, sexual assault, dating abuse, emergency communications, incident management software and more. Robin has been featured on national and local media outlets and was formerly associate editor for the trade publication Security Sales & Integration. She obtained her undergraduate degree in history from California State University, Long Beach.
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