Flashing red and blue lights danced across the officer’s face as the Department of Public Safety car passed a Syracuse Police Department checkpoint on South Crouse Avenue.

The turn signal clicked as the car made yet another loop around campus; this was another Saturday night for DPS.

But this night was different.

Unlike Saturdays before, this night’s radio silence was rarely broken, except for the fight north of the city. None of the officers on duty had called in requesting back-up and the sound of sirens in the distance, typically a constant refrain on a weekend evening, was conspicuously absent.

Cpl. Kwamena Morris had one word for it: quiet.

“Right now what I hear on the radio is just lock-outs. They’re taking a lot of unsecured door calls right now,” she said.

Morris, who has worked for DPS since 2000 and became a corporal in 2007, acts as a supervisor and rarely responds to calls herself, instead delegating to other officers. She only responds to a call if she is specifically asked to or if back-up is requested. This night, she didn’t respond to a single call.

As Morris drove around campus, she kept an eye on the students who were already walking around at 10:45 p.m. As the night goes on, she said, there will be “droves and droves” of students wandering around popular areas like Comstock Avenue, Euclid Avenue and Walnut Park.

“We actually, a lot of times, will put a community service officer out there, just to keep people moving, because a lot of time, there’s literally crowds and crowds of people on the sidewalks and stuff on this block,” she said of Comstock Avenue. “Sometimes they get rowdy and things get a little crazy.”

There is also a detail of SPD officers set up in the East Neighborhood, which Associate Chief John Sardino pointed out while turning right at the corner of Westcott Street and Euclid Avenue. Two officers had parked there with their lights flashing, making themselves visible from all the way down Euclid Avenue.

But officers in the East Neighborhood detail aren’t the only ones working overtime. Sardino, who has long since graduated from doing weekend overnights, has nonetheless been putting in extra hours.

For about the past six weeks, Sardino has been coming in at least one weekend evening for upward of seven hours, managing what goes in the DPS office and, as he said, “seeing things through my own eyes.” Sardino said he wanted to be able to personally report back to the university what exactly is going on around campus.

Sardino also noted the ramped-up police presence around campus in general, at one point saying that in one square mile, there were upward of 50 police officers working, including members of SPD, DPS, the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office and the Onondaga County Probation Department.

“That’s the magnitude and the seriousness with which we’ve taken recent events,” he said.

These recent events include a stabbing at the Carrier Dome after the Orange Madness event, a stabbing on Marshall Street at Acropolis Pizza, a possible firearm discharge on Marshall Street and rumors of gang activity in the East Neighborhood.

But since the police presence has increased around campus, there has been a noticeable decrease in the amount of crime.

“We know that when we increase our visibility and we’re active and we’re able to drive up and down streets on a smaller timetable — that we’re up and down a street every five minutes — that there’s going to be less crime,” Sardino said.

DPS has also increased its CCTV presence, closed-circuit security cameras that monitor both South Campus and Main Campus — a security system that, Sardino said, is growing almost by the day. CCTV has been a good resource for investigations in crimes, as much of the university is now being monitored 24 hours a day.

But what really cuts down on crime and aids in investigations is building trust between DPS and the students at Syracuse University, something that Cpl. Joe Shanley has made the focal point of his work as a DPS officer.

“I try to be as visible as I can to become an ally for the students,” Shanley said while working a dance party at the SkyBarn. “And what I mean by an ally is become a recognizable part of our community so that if there’s a situation that needs attention, they will trust me to do whatever I can to help them.”

The importance of building a relationship between campus police and SU students is stressed throughout the ranks of DPS. The department doesn’t try to discourage students from partying on the weekends; it just encourages students to do so safely and legally.

“It’s been my experience that every young lady or gentleman has really worked hard to get here,” Shanley said. “They’re here to do the right thing, just at times I might need to remind them and keep them in the boundaries and not disrespect what the university is trying to do too.”

Things remained quiet that Saturday night. Mostly quiet, anyway.

Around 12:45 a.m., Sardino pulled over on the 300 block of Euclid Avenue to break up an argument between students in front of Lyons Hall. He asked the students to move along and continue on their way, likely preventing a potential fist fight.

But Sardino said that type of situation is exactly what campus police is here to deal with; he doesn’t really mind it or let students’ behavior bother him. Partying is what goes on at college and, having lived in Syracuse and attended the university, he knows precisely what happens on the weekends.

Said Sardino: “I spent a lot of time at Syracuse University growing up. I was one of these people walking around in the middle of the night.”

Published on November 1, 2012 at 1:14 am

Contact Avery: avhartma@syr.edu | @averyhartmans