EDITOR’S NOTE: We sent a staff writer and photographer to follow a pair of public safety assistants during one of their 7 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. shifts last week. PSAs are typically students who have an interest in pursuing a career in law enforcement. They are used by the USM Police Department to help with campus security. Staff Writer Lindsay Quinn walked the beat with these PSAs and shares her experience.
Public Safety Assistants Evan Cassidy and Jeremy Meadows led me and Free Press photographer Glen Bolduc around on some of their rounds through residence halls and around the Gorham campus grounds on a brisk Thursday evening last week.
“Most nights are pretty slow,” said Meadows.
Public safety assistants, or PSAs, walk around all the residence halls and campus grounds at least two or three times on weekend nights between 7 p.m. and 2:30 a.m.
“We’re out until 2:30 [a.m.], unless something happens,” said Meadows.
PSAs wear blue jackets, blue collared shirts, blue pants and black shoes. It’s almost hard for us to see them until we walk under streetlights.
PSAs usually go on their rounds after quiet time begins at 9 p.m. Many of the problems, according to Meadows, occur after 10 p.m. at the earliest, because of the intoxicated people coming back from parties.
“Most people have learned [to be quiet]. The most interesting thing I’ve heard when I’ve knocked on a door was, ‘You guys, somebody’s at the door, and I have to answer it,'” said a grinning Meadows.
“Last week we cleared 20 people out of a room in Philippi. You could hear [the party] from the street,” he continued.
I asked Meadows about the recent incident at Upton-Hastings where a student attacked a USM police officer. “That was a freak incident,” he said. “If it had been one of us, it wouldn’t have happened. It’s not something you expect to have happen on campus,” Meadows continued. “He kept fighting back after he was cuffed.”
The first residence hall we went into was Gorham’s newest addition, Philippi Hall. We signed in at the front desk and proceeded to follow the PSAs through the dorm.
Meadows and Cassidy, both criminology majors, checked every floor and hallway for noise, which is basically what they do, according to Meadows. At the entrance to one hallway, the PSAs stood in the doorway, and checked for excessive noise, or anything else out of the ordinary.
In Philippi Hall there is a large open staircase down which a chair was recently thrown.
“[Philippi Hall] is like a hotel,” said Meadows, in reference to the beauty and elegance of the new dorm.
On a tour of the first floor, Meadows pointed out a place on a windowsill where students hide alcohol on the outside, and then retrieve it once they are inside. PSAs on duty found alcohol on that windowsill over the course of vacation, according to Meadows.
The next residence hall on the round was the Towers, which consists of Dickey and Wood Halls, located on the rear side of the campus.
“By far, the Towers are usually the loudest,” said Meadows.
Dickey and Wood Halls are alcohol-free.
“Technically, I don’t even think you’re supposed to come back to your dorm intoxicated,” said Meadows. “Philippi and Robie-Andrews are the only wet dorms on campus,” he added.
We walked through each level of Wood and Dickey while Meadows and Cassidy checked for anything out of the ordinary. “The most interesting thing I have ever seen [on campus], was a parking lot fire,” said Cassidy. The fire was in the lower Robie-Andrews parking lot last semester.
In the elevator, Meadows shared stories of finding unpleasant things in the elevators in various buildings.
“We usually use the end of our flashlight to hit the buttons in the elevator in Upton-Hastings. People use the buttons for spitting practice,” Meadows said.
Whenever bodily fluids are encountered on rounds the PSAs must call in a biohazard clean-up, according to Meadows.
Many of the floors in the Towers were completely silent.
“Maybe [the semi-formal] will keep them quiet tonight,” said Meadows.
On other floors, music escapes from the quads. “After 9 [p.m.], we would knock on the door,” Meadows said. “We do [rounds in] the Towers all the time,” said Meadows, referring to the relatively high rate of problems there.
Outside the Towers, cars are parked on the lawn with their indicators flashing. People are also parked on the sidewalk. Meadows walked up to three cars.
“It’s a $50 fine for parking on the sidewalk,” he told the drivers.
Turning back to us, he explained, “I don’t think a lot of people know that.”
“It’s a $50 fine for parking on a sidewalk,” he repeated to the drivers.
After we walked away, Cassidy and Meadows checked cars to make sure no one was breaking into any of them. Meadows shined his flashlight into areas off of the G20 parking lot.
“Sometimes people will head off into the woods for parties when it gets a little warmer,” he said.
USM Police in Gorham have nine PSAs.
PSAs always travel in pairs, according to another PSA, Dee Bartlett. However, on this particular night Bartlett was working alone because she was monitoring Corthell Hall and the Art Department below Robie-Andrews.
We walked from the front of Corthell, around to the back of Robie-Andrews.
“This is what we call the Walk of Shame. All the people coming back from the frats have to walk up this hill, and they are staggering and falling over. they do weird stuff,” Meadows said.
Meadows explained the relationship between the Gorham Police Department and USM Police. They often work together towards a common goal. Sometimes, Gorham Police will alert the USM Police if they know that underage students are returning to the campus with alcohol. Recently this tactic has been successful in preventing underage drinking on campus, according to Meadows.
The next residence hall we entered was Robie-Andrews. Upon entering the building, we noticed there was no one at the security desk. Robie-Andrews was very quiet, though, and we were soon on to do rounds at Upton-Hastings. This was around 9 p.m., so quiet hours went into effect.
Inside Upton-Hastings the elevator was out of order, limiting access for handicapped students. By the time we arrived, it had been out of order for about an hour and a half.
On one floor, there was a burning smell, attributed to burnt food. And there were many instances of loud music within both Upton and Hastings.
After the rounds, Meadows and Cassidy returned to the station for a quick break.
“We’re not the assholes everyone thinks we are. It can be fun some nights and other nights it can be boring,” said Meadows.
“You have your good nights and bad nights,” said Cassidy. “We’re trying to do something good.”
Staff Writer Lindsay Quinn can be contacted at: [email protected]