After meeting with students from both Smith and Hampshire colleges, Deborah Crafts, one of the shortlisted candidates for the Director of Public Safety position, met with the Student Government Association on April 20 at 7:30 p.m.

Presently the Deputy Chief of Public Safety at Simmons College in Boston, Crafts has also had experience in campus law enforcement at Bentley College and Northwestern University.

Since the merging of the Public Safety departments of Smith, Hampshire and Mount Holyoke last year, the Director of Public Safety oversees the Public Safety departments of all three colleges. Crafts said that she understood that each college faced different challenges. “My goal is to get Public Safety staff in line so that each college has staff that they’re comfortable with,” she said.

She spoke of the importance of community policing.

“Community Policing is knowing what’s going on in your community…Meeting with students is important in knowing what the issues are,” said Crafts. “We have to respond in an appropriate manner.”

One of the concerns raised by students was the possibility of introducing tasers in all the three colleges, which interim Public Safety Director Barbara Arrighi said was not under consideration. “Everybody either has them or doesn’t have them,” Crafts responded.

Another issue that students brought up was over the use of video cameras and other surveillance devices on campus especially in the light of recent thefts. Crafts acknowledged that cameras were often deterrents but she said that in her experience they helped solve thefts only in about 10 percent of the cases.

Students also said investigations were slow and drawn-out because the three colleges share a single detective. If hired, Crafts said that she would look into the issue. She pointed out that while it may not be possible to hire additional staff, delegating some investigations to other officers was a possibility.

The other candidate, Jeffery J. Roy, will visit the College on Tuesday, April 27 and is scheduled to speak to the Student Government Association in Cleveland L1 at 7:30 p.m.

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3. Public Safety merges with Hampshire Workforce
4. Search for Public Safety director continues
5. Ominsky to oversee Public Safety at Princeton