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TRCC adds police chief to campus

By Tyler Profilet - bio | email

POPLAR BLUFF, MO (KFVS) - Three Rivers Community College adds an armed police chief to the campus.

Shawn Westbrooks will be its first Chief of Police beginning next semester.

"A police force that is certified with training and skills to monitor safety and security was very important to us," said TRCC President Dr. Devin Stephenson.

"If you look at any community with a population of 3,700 people like Three Rivers has on its campus, you would expect that they would have a police department," said Chief Westbrooks.

Westbrooks is currently a criminal justice instructor at Three Rivers.

He says no longer relying on the Poplar Bluff Police or Butler County Sheriff's Departments will make the campus safer because of reduced response times.

"By having a police officer on campus, we now have the ability to respond immediately to a crime in progress," Westbrooks said.

But he says, more importantly, he expect officers to serve as a deterrent to violent crime.

"If you're someone who has an interest in committing a crime, especially a crime of violence, and you know there's an unarmed security guard walking around, that's not much of a deterrent," he said.  "But if you know there's a police officer who has the power to arrest, who is carrying a weapon, who is trained to deal with those types of situations, that does serve as a deterrent."

Westbrooks said he hopes to eventually have one police officer for every 500 students on campus.

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