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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 21, 1987)
Tuesday, July 21, 1987AThe Battalion/Page 3 State and Local HU ' were :d New police chief takes over in College Station Strope already familiar with problems in university towns By Yvonne DeGraw Stuf f Writer ne xttt» Proud Aggies say their town just Hin’t be compared. to B But College Station’s new police gfchief comes trom another college Hint? B vvn many ol the same cliarac- .l ° Eristics and problems — a relatively air Bw violent crime rate but a high per- B |lta g e of auto theft and other rowd p) operty crimes. natter j Chief Michael L. Strope, 38, took Ber as chief of police Monday. He willim ; |t iis been in town since Wednesday Mn ' ajid already has glowing comments ° Bjttttt College Station: dynamic, , Bowing, friendly, warm and excit- the 1!^' I An ancient Cdiinese proverb calls Be last comment a curse, but few Bngtime residents complain that Bo I lege Station is too exciting. I Strope direc ted the police depart- Bent of Stillwater, Okla. for three | fears before accepting this job. ■ While Stillwater has 12,()()() citi- zens, Ca)llege Station had 37,000 in nby 1980. Oklahoma State University ' Bis 21,000 students to Texas A&M’s eicpeeled 39,000 students this fall. I Strope’s former department had B) sworn police of ficers, while Col- (ftt/rtlm Bge Station has ()8. His <jld budget iptflf(i«tBas $2.2 million. His new one is $2.9 Billion. The big difference, Strope said, is Tjnat Stillwater has no neighboring Bty like Bryan to make the area look Brger. ll/l l f 1,1 looking forward to the chal- I lIBnges and the sharing ol ideas that 1 I ¥^|iink College Station offers,” he said * in an interview Friday. Deep brown B es and a relaxed manner make these statements, which would seem ffiealistic and naive spoken by an other person, believable. ■ The bare walls of Strope’s office, B the new wing of the police depart- If-balBent, were evidence of his recent ar- flval- Strope replaces Marvin Byrd, tBho retired in January after 14 years at iwik () f police. detO’S He has had even less chance to half- settle in College Station. His wife, ,|| (l Debbie, and three children still are „ Jiving in Stillwater. Their house ' aCfllj needs to be sold so they can buy a ) loolit new one. Debbie Strope, 37, with flyfiB iicerj rce fled til i.Tlii avein whom Strope will celebrate his twen tieth anniversary this September, will bring their two sons — Brandon, 13, and Ryan, 6 — to Texas in a month to a month and a half. “In the meantime, I’ll get to be come a bachelor,” he said. “I guess it’s baloney sandwiches and TV din ners for me.” His daughter, Leighann, will stay in Stillwater for her last year of high school. He said she plans to major in journalism at Texas A&M after she graduates. Strope doesn’t stumble and fum ble when talking about the ages, grades and interests of his children. He calls himself a home person. “Tm what you would call a tin- kerer around the house,” Strope said. “By that I mean I’m not blessed with a lot of skills in repairing things and doing a lot of carpentry work, but I like to tinker with things and see how they work. I do a little fixing up around the house and a little yard work.” He said he runs three to five miles each day. Hunting, fishing and sof tball are other pursuits he enjoys. Judging from Strope’s past activ ities and plans, it’s likely he will spend much of his time working in the community in capacities other than police chief. In Stillwater he was a member of the rotary club, the chamber of com merce, the Salvation Army board and the Starting Point (alcohol abuse prevention) board of directors. “I hope to become a very active member of this community,” he said, “not only in my position as chief of police, but also as a true member.” He said community involvement is the best way to fight property crimes — a common problem for law enforcement officers in college towns. College Station has a solid base of neighborhood watches, but he said he would like to build on that. Watches are more difficult to estab lish in apartment complexes. “There are some sucessful pro- . >• -'-a - •' Michael L. Strope, College Station police chief Photo by Sarah Cowan grams that have been established, es pecially in apartment complexes where one or two key families that are not so transient agree to cooper ate,” he said. Strope said he wants to work with apartment owners to increase secu rity features like locks and lighted parking areas. He said he also wants to be in volved in organizations like the Par ent-Teacher Association and A&M committees. “In Stillwater I was on three com mittees with the student government president,” Strope said. “I think if you keep those lines of communica tion open, you can work out poten tial problems before they become big issues.” But Strope hasn’t made any spe cific plans for community involve ment yet. He wants a chance to ex amine his choices first. Strope does have specific plans for the police department, though. And, as with his plans for civic in- vdlvement, his first goal is to assess the current situation. He wants to see if all members of the department understand their re sponsibilities, authority and who they report to. His second goal is to establish an ongoing training program for police officers and other department mem bers. “In-service training is critical for police officers in today’s society where things change so fast,” said Strope, who serves on the training and education committee of the In ternational Association of Chiefs of Police. He plans on requiring a minimun of 50 hours a year of training for each department member. The needs of the department would de termine the topics, he said, but likely subjects are high-speed driving, weapons qualification, community relations, communication skills, writ ing skills and first aid. Many people do not realize that 90 percent of police work requires skill in dealing with people, Strope said. “Communication is more impor tant in the long run than driving a car or shooting a weapon,” he said. “If you cannot relate to people, you are handicapped as a police officer.” His third goal is to develop a com prehensive policy manual for the de partment. It would include steps to take when dealing with criminal in vestigations, hiring, pursuit driving and using force to make arrests. Three years ago Strope wrote an article for Law and Order magazine tided “The Policy Policy Manual: an effective management tool.” He still believes that, and he hopes to issue College Station’s manual within a year. F ive openings on College Station’s police force attracted 170 applicants Saturday, but Strope wants to see even more aggressive recruiting. “I think we have the reponsibility of seeking the most highly qualified individuals we can attract,” he said. It is important to solicit applications, especially from minorities, rather than relying on classified advertise ments, he said. “As 1 understand it, there are at least four female officers in the de partment and three or four Hispanic and black minority members,” he said. “That says something about College Station. Many other towns cannot boast that they have that many minority members. “But I think we can do even better than that. “This is a college town with inter national students, blacks and His- panics. The department’s got to mir ror that makeup — as long as our standards are met, too.” With trade magazine publications, experience and an adjunct faculty member and a master of science de gree, Strope can support his claim that he is comfortable with college students and faculty. His master’s degree in criminal justice administration makes him rare in his profession. According to Strope, a recent survey said only 5 percent to 7 percent of law enforce ment administrators in cities as large or larger than College Station have a master’s degree. Originally Strope wanted to be a lawyer. But when he got married af ter a short time in college, he had to take a full-time job to support his wife, he said. He decided to try law enforcement for a few years as a background for the law degree he still planned to earn. “I never had an idea that I was going to become a police officer,” he said. “I was just going to try to get a taste of it. At the end of two years, it was firmly in my blood.” He found police work isn’t any thing like “Starsky and Hutch.” “It was a career that offered the kind of things I was looking for: working with people and working out problems,” he said. Officials urge parents to keep children safe in car seats By Christie Yeates Reporter | ; When transporting children, many people ignore the law and ne glect to protect them from the No. 1 preventable cause of death for young children — injuries suffered from car accidents — officials at the H exas Department of Health said. I “Statistically, children have a 25 percent greater chance of living through a car accident if they are re strained in an infant safety seat,” said Eddie Cannon, state trooper for the Texas Department of Public Safety. Statistics compiled by the health department reveal that in a 30 mph crash, a 10-pound infant would be ripped from a person’s arms with a force of almost 300 pounds. A child restraint law passed in 1985 says a child up to 2 years of age must be secured in a child safety seat, while a child 2 to 4 years old must be either in a safety seat or have a seat belt on. Despite the law’s passage two years ago, about half ol the children in Texas travel unrestrained by a child safety seat or protective shield, said Katie Womack, research socio logist for the Texas Transportation Institute. About 8 percent of the unre strained children are held in an adult’s arms, Womack said. Some people think they can hold on to a child in an accident, she said, but the child often is hurled through a win dow. Cannon said, “The big argument that parents give is that children “Statistically, children have a 25 percent greater chance of living through a car accident if they are re strained in an infant safety seat. ” — Eddie Cannon, DPS trooper fight and won’t slay in the car seat.” Children who weren’t used to rid ing in the car seats when the law came into effect cause trouble be cause they aren’t used to being con fined, he said. A way to prevent the children from resisting is to start carrying them in the safety seats as early as possible, he said. “If a child is started the day he is brought home from the hospital in a car seat, and he never knows there’s any other way to ride, that’s all he’ll know and he won’t resist,” Carmon said. But even a child who conforms to restraining seats still may be in dan ger, Womack said. “Ten percent of the safety belts that are used are not used correctly,” she said. “Putting the child in the seat is not enough,” Womack said. “The par ents must make sure the child is belted in properly, that the shield is in place and that the seat is anchored to the vehicle properly.” According to a TTI survey of 12 major cities in Texas, child restraint usage showed a decrease from 63 percent in 1986 to 54 percent in the first three months of 1987. Womack attributes last year’s high child restraint usage to the fact that the required safety belt law had only recently taken effect and attention was drawn to safety systems. “With the passage of the law, there is voluntary compliance to some extent,” Carmon said. “Even though there’s a law, there are a lot of people who aren’t restraining their children. “ The Texas Department of Public Safety writes an average of 7,000 tickets a month for safety-belt viola tions. “People don’t put their children in safety seats because the people don’t think an accident could happen to them. They don’t get in their car with the thought, ‘I could have a wreck and die.’ Many times people think it is easier to just get into the car and go rather than take the time to buckle the child in.” Several agencies in the Brazos Valley are concerned about the dis regard for the child restraint law. Materials available from the health department, the Brazos Valley De velopment Council and the TTI state the advantages of using a child safety system for children under 4 and list ways to help children accept being restrained in a car. )fthee4| : prcseit- : ; r thcBis'l i per for !S within 1 ’ aiidenql $34.6! f grawt- nald> ; 7784!. ; fljl# lege Sit . Students! Work Smart. Work Simply... With Hewlett-Packard! 110 $50.00 12C 80.00 150 80.00 180 140.00 280..... 190.00 41CV 140.00 41 OX 200.00 71B 420.00 IDSIS 1 AUTHORIZED HEWLETT-PACKARD DEALER 505 Church Street • College Station, Texas (409) 846-5332 Don’t Worry when an accident or sudden illness occurs CarePlus is open when you need them 7 days a week with affordable medical care. Pharmacy now open 7 days a week for your convenience CarePlus^rri Medical/Dentai Center 696-0683 1712 S.W. Parkway • C.S. 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