At last week’s Faculty Senate meeting, Police Chief Laura Wilson made a presentation on crime statistics and shared a humorous moment with senate chair Hank Greely and Vice Provost for Student Affairs Gene Awakuni. Photo: L.A. Cicero

Wilson swiftly became an effective supervisor, said former police chief Marv Herrington, who hired her. "Officers respected her because she was bright and she was right."

In June 2002, Wilson became chief, the first Stanford graduate and the first woman to serve in that role. She oversees a short-staffed department facing a rising campus theft rate, a student alcohol problem and bike safety issues. In a report to the Faculty Senate last Thursday and in interviews, Wilson talked about those challenges and her vision for the department's future.

At one point in the Faculty Senate meeting, the one-time reluctant recruit displayed how much more comfortable she had grown with enforcing the law since the days when she was a rookie cop. When a graduate student accused the department of being heavy handed by issuing citations to bicyclists for moving violations and to skateboarders, Wilson's response was steely and swift.

"Not to minimize people's feelings, but there is one simple way [to avoid tickets]," Wilson said. "Don't violate the law."

Covering the streets

One of the major challenges Wilson inherited from predecessors Marv Herrington and Marvin Moore is a severe shortage of sworn officers. Of 32 positions allocated for sworn officers, 12 currently are unfilled. "We couldn't operate any leaner," Wilson said. "It's been a little frightening, not having enough officers to cover the streets."

The staffing crisis began during the most recent boom in Silicon Valley, when the department had to compete with inducements like the one the Atherton Police Department offered recruits -- a $100,000 home loan in exchange for a 10-year commitment. Until recently, Stanford offered a $13,000 sign-on bonus to recruits.

The recent downturn in the economy has been beneficial for Stanford's recruitment prospects and Wilson expects to add 10 to 12 new officers to the department soon. The officers she hires will be required to spend five months at the police academy and four months more training in-house. They won't be functional officers until next spring, she said.

For now, deputies work 12-hour shifts, four days on and four days off, with chronic overtime. The shortage extends to supervisory ranks; Wilson has only three lieutenants and an acting lieutenant to serve as watch commanders. The bare minimum number of officers she can have on the streets is two; Wilson aims for four or five on weekends.

Adding to the crunch is the fact that officers must take hours of training each year to keep "perishable skills" like driving and marksmanship up to date, along with specialized training in dealing with crimes like sexual assault and elder abuse. (A testament to how tightly officers' time is scheduled is the fact that no one has had time to take the training necessary to operate two brand-new BMW motorcycles purchased in 2002. The motorcycles -- "beautiful bikes," says Wilson -- are garaged.) When events like campus demonstrations are announced, "We have to tell officers, 'If you had plans, cancel them.'"

Wilson fills the gaps through a contract with the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office for extra deputies, but the long hours are taking their toll, she said. "People are tired but they just keep plugging away."

Trouble spots: theft, alcohol

In spite of its surface tranquility, "we actually have a crime problem on campus," Wilson said. When she pages through a stack of police reports generated over one weekend, reports of stolen bikes crop up most often, followed by dorm and vehicle burglaries.

Bike theft has soared on campus, from a low of 179 thefts in 1999 to 451 stolen bikes on campus in 2002. The fluctuations in the incidence of bike theft over a 12-year period closely follow a graphed line showing the rise and fall of unemployment in Silicon Valley over the same period, Wilson pointed out. Burglary -- mostly laptops and wallets, sometimes books or CD players -- also is a "significant" problem. In 2002, there were 154 reports of burglaries at campus residences and buildings and 89 car burglaries. The vehicle theft rate ranks alongside Oakland and Richmond, although "the reason it's so high is that golf carts are considered a vehicle," Wilson said.

The attitude of tolerance and openness that's cultivated on campus helps make it easier for thieves to operate here, since many people are reluctant to question the activities of others, she said. "People can walk through a dormitory and no one challenges their right to be there. And suddenly, someone has lost a laptop. A lot of people rationalize what they see, I think.

"People could afford to be a little more alert," Wilson said. "They should go ahead and call us if they see something suspicious."

At one time, 30 officers were assigned each night to building security. Past budget cuts and the use of such building security technology as entry keypads have whittled the number down to two officers who patrol dorms, Wilson said. Budget cuts could eliminate dorm security altogether in the future, she said.

'Alcohol is a problem'

On any given weekend, police also are likely to arrest a minor in possession of alcohol or to respond to a "medical" -- a call asking for help transporting a student who's had too much to drink to the hospital. Wilson told the Faculty Senate last Thursday that she first became alarmed in 2000, when 36 students were hospitalized to treat the effects of over-consumption of alcohol. Nineteen students were taken to the hospital with alcohol-related symptoms in 2002.

Statistics don't reveal the extent of the problem, since they record only police contacts made, not the incidence of drinking, she said. Given the amount of time it takes for officers to book evidence and write reports, there is a limit to how many arrests can be made, she said. It takes an experienced officer 90 minutes to complete a case when arresting a minor student for alcohol possession, she said. It can take three to five hours to write a DUI report and, on busy nights, two to three hours to book a suspect at the jail, she said. A brand-new officer will take 11 hours to write a DUI report, she said. After a couple of arrests, there are no more cops out there to make new ones, she said. "If I had 50 officers, those statistics would rise."

Traditionally, the department has respected the fact that dormitories are students' homes and haven't gone looking there to prosecute minors for alcohol possession, she said. "There are different perspectives. Some people tend to go more toward education and some go more toward enforcement," she said. "My personal opinion is that alcohol misuse by underage and of-age students is a problem that we as a university need to address," she told the Faculty Senate.

Officers also have recently been discovering high school students at campus parties where alcohol is served. So far, none of the students have been from Palo Alto school districts, but Wilson has met with administrators in that district to discuss the problem. High school students found drinking at campus parties are issued a citation, which is handled through the juvenile court system. The parents, or an adult if no parent can be located, are called to come pick up the juvenile, Wilson said.

Another challenge officers face is an increased number of calls related to students with mental health problems. Stanford deputies now transport two to three students each month to the hospital to be involuntarily committed for mental health reasons. "It used to be three a year," Wilson said. Campus health officials have told her that more admitted students now arrive on campus with psychological problems than in the past, she added.

Regulating bike safety

Bicycle safety is another of the department's top priorities, Wilson said. In response to a request from the President's Office, Wilson and staff at Parking and Transportation Services initiated a bicycle safety campaign last fall. In a three-month period last year, staff made 4,800 contacts with bicyclists, and registered more than 2,000 bikes and installed lights on bikes, she said. (Four thousand bicycle lights have been issued.) The police department also issued 385 citations to cyclists, including tickets for 25 moving violations.

"People talk about the police crackdown. Our number of citations is really quite small," she said. "We try at the beginning of the year to focus on education, and as the year goes on, we increase our citation efforts," she said.

The department's goal is see the number of cyclists who stop at stop signs increase to 25 percent. That might seem like an overly modest goal, except the baseline for stop sign compliance is 2 percent, Wilson said. At present, about 15 to 16 percent of cyclists come to a complete stop at stop signs, she added.

"Culture drives behavior," said Wilson. "People know they are supposed to stop but nobody else does it. It will take a long time to change the culture -- and a constant presence on our behalf."

It's a drain on her department to have officers out writing citations for cyclists, she said. Wilson said she is working on creating a new level of officer, a step between non-sworn community service officers and deputies, who carry weapons and maintain standards set by the California Commission of Peace Officer Standards and Training. Public officers would not carry a weapon but, unlike community service officers, could issue bicycle citations.

Looking ahead

Filed away with Wilson's memory of doors slamming in her face as she walked down the hall of her dorm as a deputy is the recollection of attending an off-campus training session with another member of the police force. "We're just campus officers," she overheard the officer say.

"He was perpetuating what I think is a myth," said Wilson. There's a feeling that because campus cops aren't out chasing robbers every day that they are second-class law enforcement officers, she said. "We have to let go of those stereotypes."

Every contact her staff makes with students presents an opportunity to change perceptions, she said. "We are educators. Law enforcement is just the tool."

When she was applying for the job of chief, she wrote a letter to the search committee emphasizing the role that a list of core values developed by former chief Marvin Herrington had played in her decision to remain in law enforcement.

"The department's values emphasize the importance of service, maintaining the public trust and conducting oneself with honesty, integrity, fairness, professionalism and courage," she wrote. "I am proud to work for an organization that demands such behavior from its employees."

For Christmas, Wilson gave staff members a mug printed with the acronym ROOTS, which stands for responsibility, ownership, opportunity, teamwork and solutions. ("I wanted to add 'pride,' but it didn't quite fit. Ownership includes the concept of pride," she said.)

Wilson said she's only recently given up on her dream of becoming an Olympic runner. Now she's focused on teamwork -- and it's been a good exchange, she said. When mulling over the future of the department, Wilson recalled an Outward Bound instructor's course, where she and another woman were paired on a canoe trip. "We weren't necessarily stronger or fitter than anyone else on the trip, but we totally jelled. We outpaddled everyone else on the trip without even trying," Wilson said. Even after they tried to slow themselves down by carrying more equipment, they still pulled away from the group.

"That experience really solidified for me the power that comes from finding the right team," she said. "That momentum is what I am trying to spark at the department -- culture where we push and support one another toward excellence."

Wilson, a fitness buff, enjoyed a midday swimming workout with the Master’s Swim Team. Photo: L.A. Cicero

• 2002 Campus crime statistics


• Laura Wilson sworn in as university's sixth police chief (06/04/02)


• Alumna finds career on campus (01/14/98)