Change of season

The summer brings many changes to the IU campus: the blades of grass begin to turn greener, the humidity rises, the sun's rays burn intensely and the IU Police Department is forced to make a change in their day-to-day operations.\nIUPD operates as a law enforcement agency committed to serving the public safety needs of both the IU and Bloomington communities.\nDuring the academic year, many IU students inhabit the campus and innocently provide many opportunities for books to be stolen, cars to be vandalized, bikes to be taken and binge drinking to occur. All things with which 28 full-time officer must deal. \nThese possibilities change during the summer when the students leave and incoming freshmen come to visit campus, along with many professional conferences that take place on the campus.\n"The variation of the population is a strong factor because of the way they dictate the activity we have," IUPD Lt. Jerry Minger said. \nHe said during the summer many conferences use IU's facilities, which causes an increased effort to ensure pedestrian safety as well as property protection of those visiting the Bloomington campus.\nBut one thing that doesn't change is the IUPD's need to maintain an around-the-clock presence on the campus. IUPD divides the University into four quadrants, and they are responsible for decreasing the threat of criminal mischief.\n"Having enough people to handle what you're called upon to do is one of the challenges IUPD faces throughout the year," IUPD Shift Commander Sgt. Don Schmuhl said. "We lose a lot of on-campus living (in the summer), so we take a few less runs to the dorms, and traffic isn't as congested. But the University doesn't go away. We're still here." \n By paying less attention to the dorms, IUPD uses the saved resources and focuses more on patrolling the academic buildings -- securing the doors and windows and making sure the University's computer labs and equipment remain unharmed.\nWhile the transition focuses more on property protection during the summer, Schmuhl said the protection of human life comes first. During the summer, IUPD makes a conscious effort to help maintain a level of public safety on the roads surrounding campus. \nThroughout the summer, the sight of the red and blue lights vibrantly flickering and bouncing their staccato beams off of street signs is common to drivers. While traffic tickets can be expensive, it's the very deterrent IUPD uses to help keep the driver-training video "Red Asphalt" from becoming a reality on Seventeenth Street.\nOne of the officers responsible for maintaining this vigilance over the members of the IU community is IUPD Officer Brice Boembeke, who has been with the department a year and a half. Boembeke graduated from IU with an English degree as well as from the IUPD Academy. \nHe said he looks at serving on the force as a privilege.\n"I know it sounds cheesy, but we're really out here to serve and protect ... I don't want anybody to be scared of me," he said.\nBoembeke said he likes the toys that come with job -- the lights, the sirens, the fast car -- and the adrenaline rushes that come with wondering whether someone he has pulled over has a gun. \nBut he said being a police officer wasn't a life-long calling.\n"I didn't grow up saying 'I'd like to be a police officer,'" Boembeke said. "I never thought it was something I'd do. I always wanted to be a writer, but I wanted a steady paycheck."\nThe attraction to the job comes in having no routine, not being chained to a desk and meeting all the different people, he said. \nBoembeke said it's something he never thought he would do, but he loves every minute of it, and he wouldn't give it up for the world.\nHumor is an added perk of the job. Whether it be a woman trying to get out of a speeding ticket by saying she is suffering from female problems or accidentally towing IUB Chancellor Sharon Brehm's car, Boembeke has faced both comical situations. \nAt roughly 10:30 p.m. Friday, Boembeke -- known as 26 to the dispatcher -- received a call to respond to an unsecure door at the IU Speech and Hearing Clinic. While taxing the motor of his Ford Crown Victoria model Police Interceptor, he sped surely but cautiously through traffic to the clinic near the lawns of Bryan House. \nWhile racing to this call, watching for traffic and handling the radio, he was also engaged in a conversation comparing the cultural implications of removing either Walt Whitman or Alfred Lord Tennyson from the history of literature.\nBoembeke, like his family of fellow officers, said he is committed to the idea that police are a societal force committed to protecting those who can't protect themselves. And just because it's summer does not mean there is a lack, or lessening, of protection.