After recent substantial improvements in campus safety and security, BYUH placed No. 19 on the Safe Campus National Safety Summit Top 25 list of university administrative departments making a difference in student safety.
“[BYUH has] proven an outstanding dedication to improving the safety of their students, faculty, staff, and visitors,” said Safe Campus Director Linda Shaw.
According to Sifa Talakai, shift supervisor in the Security Department, some of the security improvements include extensive software and record keeping updates, loads of training for both guards and office staff, and an extensive network of security. An employee of Security compiled a list of changes that had been made to the department and submit it to the SCNSS for review, said Talakai.
Talakai credited the recent string of upgrades to Earl Morris, the director Security who was hired in spring of this year. The department’s make-over was heavily inspired by Morris’s more than 30 years of local, state, and federal law enforcement experience, continued Talakai. Talakai shared his observations as a security officer for BYUH of more than 10 years.
He said, “Before Morris got here, I could count the hours of training I had had without using all 10 of my fingers. Since he’s been here, I’ve gone through over 200 hours of training, specifically law enforcement style security training [to know] what to do in every scenario, like how to detain a bad guy until the police get here.
“We have also been trained on the use of very minimal weapons such as pepper spray, batons, handcuffs and more. We went through five days of training to get our certification on those weapons alone. None of that happened before [Morris] got here. It’s not the previous directors didn’t want us to have the training, it’s just they didn’t know how [important it was].”
Morris said he wants the BYUH student body to know “while we still have a long way to go to provide the level of security the students and faculty deserve, we have improved every day not so much because of what I have brought to the University, but because of the great people in our department who are willing to make the sacrifices every day for the betterment of the university and the church. They do this with no expectation other than the satisfaction of knowing they are giving their all.”
Talakai said before Morris got to BYUH, the Security Department would routinely turn in around $250,000 of unspent budget money, simply because the previous directors didn’t have experience enough to know how the money should be spent. With Morris’s security expertise, he knew exactly how the money should be spent to “make the department more efficient and more like an actual security department,” Talakai said.
Along with a new director of campus Security, the department brought in Anthony Pickard about a year ago to be second in command as the manager of security and risk management, Talakai continued.
“Pickard had retired after 25 years in the FBI just before starting at BYUH, and is currently in charge of all the claim investigations. [When someone] gets their bike or skateboard stolen or their room is broken in to, they feel violated and want someone to do something about it. A lot of times, they don’t really care about the $10 bike, but they come here wanting something to be done. They want someone to ask questions like what they see police do on TV,” explained Talakai.
“We will check the cameras and do what we can to help, and we give them advice to keep them from losing their stuff again and hopefully return their stuff to them.”
Sariah Howard, who said she has worked on and off with the security department since 2007, said under the new management, trainings are conducted at least once a month. Before, trainings only happened once or twice a year.
Hope Moeia, senior dispatcher at the Security office, said the strongest improvement in her eyes has been the improved atmosphere in the office since the changes started. “I feel a lot more motivated from all the training, and a lot of good things have come from it,” Moeia said.
The new changes have “opened a space for me to develop personally and professionally. Instead of just clocking in and out, I’ve been able to also use the skills and talents I’ve developed over the years to benefit the department,” said Howard.