William Ferguson hopes to remove acting from his title as Syracuse University chief of the Department of Public Safety.

Ferguson presented his plans, if selected, for the future of Public Safety on Thursday night at the second of the open forums for the four candidates.

The plans include several aspects of community policing including an ‘adopt a dorm program.’ Ferguson said that in this program a Public Safety officer would be assigned to the same residence hall each day, allowing the officer to maintain positive relationships with residents.

‘If we could have an officer know people in the building on a first-name basis, that is community policing,’ Ferguson said.

Other aspects of Ferguson’s plans for community policing are crime prevention programs and forming partnerships with the Student Association and Syracuse Police Department to help defeat crime affecting students living off campus.

Ferguson proposed adding computer-aided dispatch equipment to Public Safety patrol cars. These devices would give officers easy access to information while on patrol, and make the department more efficient.

Ferguson said he has been taking steps to stop burglaries in South Campus apartments. Under his lead, Public Safety set up surveillance details and sent unmarked patrol cars to the area looking for suspicious activity, Ferguson said. But it also takes students efforts to stop the burglaries, he added.

‘We need to work together as partners fighting crime,’ Ferguson said. ‘Public Safety can’t be everywhere all the time.’

Eliminating the fear of crime on campus is as important as any role of Public Safety, he said. The fear of crime is often worse then reality. And a lack of accurate communication between the department and the student body is partly to blame for these fears, he said.

‘Using education and the release of correct information public safety can alleviate these fears,’ Ferguson said.

Responding to concerns of slow response times to the campus blue light alarm system, Ferguson said he was not aware of a problem, but he expects officers under his lead to respond to the alarms within two minutes of their activation.

Ferguson explained the steps Public Safety took after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. It increased patrols on campus, met with Carrier Dome management to increase security and provided protection to special events such as the student march to the rally in Clinton Square, he said.

Jake Goldman, a freshman television, radio and film major, was impressed with Ferguson and said he thought he would be a good choice for Public Safety.

‘His credentials speak for themselves,’ Goldman said. ‘Since becoming the interim director, there haven’t been any major problems on campus. If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.’

Before his career at SU, Ferguson spent 26 years at the Town of Dewitt Police Department, reaching the rank of deputy chief of police. He holds a master’s degree in Public Administration from The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

‘I look forward to building new partnerships and continuing to lead the department as a positive part of the SU community,’ Ferguson said.

Published on November 15, 2001 at 12:00 pm