Let's Talk UNLV

0:00:00
All right, welcome to another segment of Let's Talk UNRV on KUNV. You with co-host Keith and Tanya. But I'm excited with our guest today. We have the pleasure of having Arnold Vasquez, who's the assistant director of UNRV police or university police service. I'm still getting used to the new structure myself. I'm an old timer. And we're just going to be talking about today just safety on campus, in particular, safety on campus with the University Police Department. Sounds great.

0:00:31
Welcome. Well, thank you for having me. I'm really excited to be here. It's great to be a part of the family, if you will. I was a former UNLV student back in the early 90s. Yeah, okay. Had a little, dating myself a little bit there, but coming back home has been great. And I've been really excited to be a part of the party. We probably crossed paths. I was a student walking around campus. Really? Okay. Mm-hmm. Probably not doing everything I should have been doing as a student, but in the mid-late 90s. I'm sure we were all we're in the same boat then I'm sure. Yeah, just you know it was a great campus then it is today. It's grown so much over the years and it's been a lot of fun being here. I'm excited. Well see you're another one. I label us as sticky. We get here as students and you can't get rid of us.

0:01:18
We end up here as professional employees.

0:01:20
Right.

0:01:21
But I wanted to get us started by just asking sort of what's your origin story in terms of how you ended up here in this position at UNLV?

0:01:30
OK. Sure. Well, actually, I'm retired. I was a lieutenant for Santa Cruz City Police Department. I retired after 22 years there. And law enforcement has been a great profession for me. When I came to UNLV, right out of school, I started working in the casino industry and ultimately wanted to pursue law enforcement, be a police officer, and so that led me to California, which is where I went and eventually came back after retirement. It was always a plan of mine to come back to Las Vegas. I just love the climate. I know that sounds crazy. Some people might not necessarily agree with that, but I really do love it. And through the course of that, after I retired, I wasn't quite ready to be away from the work and the profession. I really still wanted, I still had that desire and passion to give back to the community. And I've always been very much involved in working with youth. For instance, I was a high school baseball coach for about 11 years. So just really being around the education piece of the community. And when I saw this position available, I went out for it. And here I am. So I had a great opportunity with Director Garcia and felt that he was somebody in his family of folks over at University Police Services was somebody I could get behind and help move the needle forward. And what we're trying to accomplish here.

0:03:10
See, I listened to Arno. I chose the wrong profession. We were at UNLV together as students. Now he's retired. It sounds like he took a break from after he retired before he, in his second career here at UNLV.

0:03:23
So I missed a step. I missed a step.

0:03:25
Well, I think you're on a pretty good path yourself. I'm not gonna lie about that.

0:03:29
You know, I think for some people it takes a while to find your calling. And it sounds like you found your calling, like you knew that you wanted to do service, and you found your calling right out the gate and Once you find your calling then you're just that much closer to getting through right work that you have to do, right? So it's okay, you know, so there's still hope for me Absolutely, and I feel like you you are called to do this work Whether you realize it or not And I'm attracted to the retirement

0:03:56
Well, I do have to admit, you know, it sounds great and through the middle of my career I was thinking, you know what, once I'm out, I'm out. That's the end of it for me. But then you really start to feel that fire and that passion and I'm 50 years old and I'm still young enough to be able to do things and I still felt like I had something left in the tank. So it was just something where I said, I'm not ready to go yet. I want to do something. You get a little bored, believe it or not. Being at my age, I start to call some of my friends and family and say, hey, let's go play some golf. Well, they're all still working, which they can't. So I find myself kind of just trying to do things to keep myself busy on my own for the most part.

0:04:44
But it's been great. It reminds me a lot of the military. Yeah. You know, because they start so young, then they end so young and then so that so it's almost like a second career, right? So I think what what I hear you saying is that you you this was just phase one Right, and you weren't quite done with doing everything that you wanted to do. So you shifted into phase two Yeah, I've heard that we have up to like four different careers in our lifetime You know, so you shift as we grow and evolve that makes that makes complete sense So but I to you I'm attracted to the R word. But I hear you.

0:05:19
Understood, yeah.

0:05:20
It's got its pros and its cons like anything else in life.

0:05:23
It certainly does. I'm still really active. I've got kids, 13 and 11, at home. So chasing them around at school and getting them to sporting events has been a lot of work too.

0:05:33
So I want to say that, you know, so I work in CAPS. So we have a relationship with the police department in CAPS. This is wonderful to help support our students, especially students in crisis. So I am really glad that you're here. So one of the questions that I want to ask is, and I also live in, I also work in Dayton, I say live, oh good gracious. I also work in Dayton as a counselor, so I'm embedded within the freshman community. So I'm just curious as to what are some safety practices that we would like students to know, either as they arrive or as they matriculate through the system?

0:06:09
Well, I mean, when I think of to answer that question, I don't necessarily believe that it is solely from a law enforcement or police perspective. I think that a lot of kids and most of the time as freshmen, you know, leaving home for the first time, you know, it is a difficult transition. And I think that it really becomes a multifaceted approach, you know, some of the services that you provide from your end and counseling and providing those resources and guidance for students to make that transition is a big piece of it. From our standpoint, law enforcement, you know, we're there to primarily probably break the barrier, if you will, kind of break down those walls of, you know, this is, you know, I wear a uniform and I have a badge and sometimes that's a little intimidating for kids, you know, and for the public in general, quite honestly. But for us, it's really having that community outreach and part of that is reaching out to some of those students and educating them as to what our role is to help keep them safe on campus and let them know that we're not only there to come in, if you will, and save the day from evil, but also to be that resource, that friend, that somebody that they can lean on to say, hey, I'm experiencing this particular issue or this problem. Can you guide me in the right direction as to where I need to go. So I think for some of the incoming students, it's about, you know, taking the time to educate themselves and wrap their mind around the fact that it is going to be a transition from home. Even if they live local and they're now here, you know, mom and dad or aunt and uncle or whoever it was that raised them, they're a little bit further away. And so they need to learn to rely on other resources and not just try and accomplish it, that transition themselves. And I hope I answered your question on that, but I do believe that it really is a team effort from all aspects and not just from a law enforcement or a crime prevention. It's, you know, all these other services that are available to students that they might not be familiar with or even know are available to them.

0:08:28
You're right. A lot of these students are not just new to campus or new to Vegas. This is an open campus. There are a lot more people engaging with them and they may not necessarily know how to move about campus in ways that are safe like you know attending to their environment. They may not know what opportunities and offers are available through the University Police Services around escorting them to their car or where the different safety apparatus are. So I was wondering if you would take this opportunity to educate the masses on the things that are in place to help students feel safe and secure and to include yourselves as not just crime fighters, if you will, but also collaborators and partners to help them to navigate this new world that they're in.

0:09:17
Okay. Well, some of the things that we do have in place, you know, we take great pride in being able to have deterrence, if you will, or some sort of investigative tools such as surveillance cameras at some of the main federal affairs and things that might help us solve crime on the back end. But also, what is different for me, working at University Police Services, is we also have dispatchers who are able to monitor those from time to time. Ideally, they're trying to monitor them as often as they possibly can, but they can pick up on some things that might be happening that haven't been quite yet reported yet. So, it gives us an opportunity to be proactive in that regard. So that's one piece. But for the students, throughout the campus, we have a network of emergency phones, which can reach our dispatch center. And they're kind of networked throughout high traffic, pedestrian traffic areas throughout the campus. And they're clearly marked. That's something that students can use to report a crime, contact law enforcement for some help, request an escort, as you mentioned, because sometimes some classes go late, it gets dark at 4.30 or 5 these days, and before you know it you're walking through campus or getting out to your car and it's pretty dark out. So they can stop if they don't have cell phone access and actually make those phone calls and make those requests and they're strategically placed throughout the campus which is critical and a great thing for us to have an asset. On top of that we do have, in my opinion, a robust website with a ton of information which has a ton of links to a lot of different things such as requesting types of trainings or be able to attend certain trainings such as self-defense. There's also learn things about active assailant. So not that students would necessarily be completely engaged in that, but if they wanted to attend something or they wanted some more information on that, they could certainly look into that. Our RebelSafe app, which can be downloaded on Google Play or through Apple iTunes, that is a great resource. The one thing that I thought was really cool on this is that at night or at any time if you're walking and you're walking alone and you feel a little bit insecure or whatever the case might be, or you're just not sure, you can actually log your GPS location and we will track you until you get to your destination. And so that's actually a really cool thing and it's on the RebelSafe app, along with some of the other things that I mentioned, like getting escorts to your vehicle or escorts to your student housing area or whatever it might be. So those are some of the things that come to mind for me that we do have in place. Not to mention, we do take great pride in collaborating not only with other departments here on the university, but also with our local law enforcement partners and just being able to be present, being able to be available out on campus, but also around campus as well. Those are a lot of really great resources.

0:12:38
I did not know about the tracking feature. That was wonderful. Yeah, I didn't know about it either and when I started looking into it, and this was some, you know, some time ago,

0:12:46
I thought that was a really cool feature. Yeah, absolutely. I was on campus

0:12:52
the other night and you know, maybe it was one too many Harry Potters, I don't know. I was like, oh no, it's so dark. Because it does, it gets dark really quickly. And because the holiday season is coming up, there's less people on campus. Right. The next thing you know, it's you, yourself and you walking back to your car. So I appreciate having those additional safety safety features in place. Yeah.

0:13:13
I know you talked about self-defense classes. Can you talk a little bit about the Girls on Guard self-defense class? Sure. Again, that's a self-defense class that we provide, and one of the things that is important to note is, along from the, you know, fight off an attacker or an assailant in any given situation. One of the things that it really stresses too is just being aware of your surroundings and just taking those preventative measures and trying to first and foremost avoid the situation if at all possible, right? So if you have an opportunity to walk with somebody to a certain location, if you have an opportunity to kind of partner up with a friend or whatnot, when you go out for the evening, those are critical things to do and those are things that we shed light on that help us to get the message across and educate folks. That is a big component of Girls on Guard.

0:14:22
So you mean that it's not okay to be out at night with my headphones on jamming in the streets alone while walking on campus?

0:14:30
Well, it's okay, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's the safest thing to do, right?

0:14:35
Oh, okay.

0:14:36
But yeah, so those are a lot of things that we do bookend a lot of that training with. And I know when you think self-defense, people initially just jump to the physical piece of it, fighting and how to do this and do that. But the truth of it is, is kind of taking those preventative measures and approach and that mentality prior to any given situation.

0:14:57
So is there like a reoccurring schedule when those classes are offered

0:15:01
or do you have to call to request?

0:15:03
So we are working with trying to set up the schedules and have them predetermined. However, they are available. Should we get enough requests for them? Currently, I think that we're looking at having them starting up again in January when the school session starts again, but that date hasn't particularly been assigned yet. But the idea is to have them scheduled, pre-scheduled throughout the year and then we'll also schedule them as people make requests.

0:15:36
I hear a workshop opportunity. Absolutely. Coming up. Yet another thing we can collaborate on. Yeah, I love that. You know what you said, which is, which resonates with me, situational awareness. Right. You want to be aware of your situation, where you're going, what you're doing, so that you were you recruited? Is that how? Officers are assigned. Do you get recruited do for the most part? Yes

0:16:13
You know for me I again It was a little my situation was a little bit different. So I just happened to kind of come across the job posting and meeting Director Garcia by happenstance. So it wasn't, so my situation was a little unique, but for the most part for what we try to do to recruit is we do the best we can to try to attend as many job fair, career fair type of opportunities throughout the year and there's a ton of them throughout the Valley. You know I work with Haley Foster who actually does an exceptional job of publicizing us. She you know manages those things and in fact I do have a little thing that I want to meet with her on and updating our website a little bit so we can kind of make those links to the job posting and the application process much easier. But really what it comes down to is we need to put our name out there and we need to have our brand because in law enforcement it's really difficult to recruit, period. The desire unfortunately to go into law enforcement I don't think is what it was back when I was looking to go into law enforcement. So we have to be really creative. And one of them is aside from the obvious like career and job fairs, attending those. It's also kind of the whole mentality for our officers to understand that each and every one of the officers or any employee of University Police Services and for that matter I will challenge all of you being part of UNLV, you are all recruiters. You are all helping to get people in the door for us and talk about who we are and what we try to do here. So little ideas such as getting that word out, providing officers with recruitment cards to be able to hand out to people. We have certain platforms that we do try to post on such as Instagram and Facebook and Twitter to try and get the word out and offer those pieces to come work for us. Are you TikToking?

0:18:21
Any TikToking going on?

0:18:22
So we do, but I'm not a big TikToker.

0:18:28
Okay.

0:18:29
You know, but I do know that it's a pretty big hit and it, you know, that's just my style. I was never a big social media type of person, but from time to time I do have fun with it. But that, you know, those are all things that we also need to do is we need to evaluate, you know, where our market is at and what they're, what they're peeing on. And if it's TikTok, then we're going to do something to get people in the

0:18:53
door through TikTok. My initial thought is just, you know, you speak about being in places, I think it's just humanizing the role. Yeah. You know, is introducing people to the idea that you were people, right? You know, regardless of our career. So we will be on the lookout to invite you to

0:19:11
things that we do. So that you can, I hope you do. And I'm going to hold you to that. You know, the one thing I've always said to people over the course of my career is, my name is Arnold, you know, that's who I am. And behind this uniform and this badge and this vest that I wear every day, I'm a person just like anybody else. And I'm not perfect, no one is, you know, but I try to be. And so those are the things that we we really need to try and convey to people and with your help we can do that.

0:19:41
Wonderful.

0:19:43
And then relatedly, could you talk a little bit about how that influences how the work gets done or how you interact with the university community to keep all of us safe?

0:19:55
Sure. Well, I'll give it my best shot. You know, in essence, that statement alone might be different for different people. For me, what it means is, you know, law enforcement has changed over the course of my career. When I started, I got hired in 99 and, you know, just coming through those two decades of my career, it changed immensely, especially when computers became a little bit more mainstream, cell phones became a part of life. I remember when I started, we were issued beepers, pagers. I don't know if anybody remembers those. And we also were given Polaroids to take photos at crime scenes. So technology really changed law enforcement. And I think when you talk about impactful science, I think it's really about, for me, interpreting how we can do our job from a different perspective and evaluating all of those data points that we get from contacts in the community, from the types of calls for service that we get, all of those things that kind of help us allocate our resources and maybe try and identify a deficiency that we're not providing at the moment to try and to have a higher level of service. So to me, that's what that value essentially means. And like I said, it's changed incredibly over the last few decades that I've been a police officer, and it's going to continue to change. how serving this role is different when you're sort of partnering with institutions of higher education versus normal police work in, you know, just general communities. It's interesting through my selection process for assistant director for University Police Services, that was one of the main questions that came up for me, because I was a municipal police officer working in a city, you know, when you're dealing primarily with the types of crimes that occur in any type of a city and activity. And so it is different, very different. So being involved in law enforcement within an institution, I think that it is probably the most ideal situation for a law enforcement officer, simply because of what I just mentioned a minute ago. There's so many other tools and resources available to find that solution to any problem or situation. When you work on the street in a city, you have primarily just the law. You might have some assistance from county services through mental health and things like that. But when it comes down to it, it's really, are we gonna arrest this person, are we gonna give them a ticket? And that's pretty much it, those are your only options. Here, working for an institution, you have these tools on your tool belt, if you will, that are far beyond what I'm carrying today. It's my ability to pick up a phone or send you an email and say, hey, we encountered this issue, what are your thoughts? How can you help me out to try and help them out? Or can we work together? So I think that that's really the big thing with the Office of Student Conduct and Student Affairs, you know, CAPS, and some of these other entities on campus within the institution are just, I think, by far the biggest difference and really, I think, one of our, I guess, our hidden gems, if you will, for us. You know, I've always said in my profession, you know, everybody has a lot of different opinions about law enforcement and police officers, but really we're just problem solvers. And that's what we really try to do. And I know that we're not alone in that, but when it comes down to it, having those additional resources helps us come up with those solutions. So. Great. And then I also saw on the Web site where you have student employment opportunities. Could you talk about what types of student worker positions are available? Yeah. Actually, in the student and the student employment piece, I think is huge because it introduces folks and we're talking about recruitment to people that, you know, introduces them to a profession they may or may not have really been interested in or who knows, maybe they were interested in and can determine at that point, maybe it isn't for them, which is also not a bad thing, right? So but those are those are great. We have some positions such as the front desk that are kind of meeting with, being essentially the face of our department, getting to know and interact with people who come in the door and kind of see them in different situations, good, bad, or indifferent. And then we also have some other roles such as working in our property and evidence room, helping us with lost and found and processing those things. And they really kind of get to see the inner workings of some of those things on the back end and police services. So those are two opportunities. We do have some other things that I think, like Haley Foster and our publications can kind of roll into that as well and offer some help with that. And we just got done talking about hiring and recruiting. You know, we always can use hands to go with us to some of these job fairs and career fairs and help us publicize ourselves a little bit, help us with the setup, help us with the tear down, and then just kind of just be those folks to offer answers to questions.

0:25:50
All right, well, we'll get you out of here on the last word.

0:25:52
We'll get to you.

0:25:54
All right, well, thank you. First and foremost, I wanna say thank you for this opportunity. This is exactly what University Police Service is about, is being out and engaged in the community beyond you know behind in a patrol car or in our office or wherever it might be it's out talking to folks like yourselves and then using this platform to be able to get out the word on a broader scope. So thank you so much. I have been with University Police Services for three months now or close to three months. So I'm still very new and very fresh but I I got to say that this is probably the the best situation I could have ever hoped for and I'm really looking forward to you know to continuing the good work that not only the university and the staff members are doing here but also the the men and women of University Police Services.

0:26:47
Well, we are so grateful to have you here and welcome back. Okay, thank you. Welcome back to where you're from. I appreciate that. I don't know the welcome back Carter theme just started playing in my brain. Most folks are too young. No one else probably knows what the heck that was. But the welcome back Carter theme just started playing in my brain. I got that.

0:27:08
You know, none of us can ever hear it enough, but we certainly appreciate all the support that the university community receives from police services. We appreciate just. The interactions with the police officers on campus, they're they're exceptional. And I know whenever we call for support, always responsive, timely and very professional in how they manage the situation and de-escalate situations. situation. So, so the work that you all do is much appreciated. The training is much appreciated for our teams that you all do. And I do have one recruit for you. He's only seven years old at the moment. My son Landon, he's obsessed with becoming a police officer.

0:27:52
Okay. I love it. I love it. It's awesome. Well, thank you for saying that. That means a lot for not only myself, but everyone that who dons the uniform and the badge. So thank you and you know, sin land in my way, we'll start chatting, take them off for a little ride. You know, I'm good with that.

0:28:10
I wanted to just add, the thing that we don't often see and that we don't often know is that the times that we've had to interact at CAPS, it's always been compassionate. It's always been considerate. They've always been very thoughtful about how they engage with students, you know, and I think that makes so much difference because if you're in a crisis environment, the last thing you want to do is then have anxiety. And whenever we've engaged on any level with the University of Police Officers, it's always been very compassionate, kind service that we've

0:28:43
received. Well that's great to hear. It really means a lot to me because we, you know, that is one of the hard things to really instill in officers, not in today's day and age, because I think what we have here is an understanding that policing is different than it always has been. And just like everything, we need to adapt and change to figure out how we serve people and serve our community best. So thank you for mentioning that. That means a lot.

0:29:12
Thank you for keeping us safe.

0:29:13
Okay, do my best.

0:29:14
Remember, we were deputized.

0:29:15
Okay, so I'm going to go arrest some folks.

0:29:18
Let's do it.

0:29:19
Let's do it. I saw someone litter. Did you? I'm kidding.

0:29:23
So, that's a wrap.

0:29:24
For more Let's Talk UNLV, be sure to follow us on social media where you can get the latest updates on the show plus great behind the scenes content. We're on Facebook at Let's Talk UNLV Podcast, Twitter at Let's Talk UNLV, and Instagram at We're on Facebook at Let's Talk UNLV Podcast, Twitter at Let's Talk UNLV, and Instagram at Let's Talk UNLV POD.

Transcribed with Cockatoo