43
Scott makes his case to be YSU’s next chief of police
By Justin Wier
YOUNGSTOWN
Jeffrey Scott, chief of police at Notre Dame College in South Euclid and seeking the top cop job at Youngstown State University, says two major areas of concern for him are threat preparation and the growing presence of cybercrime.
“These things exist,” Scott said. “How are we educating our students to keep them safe?”
Scott took questions and spoke to 30 people Wednesday during one of three open forums for finalists to be the YSU police chief.
The position has been open since the former chief, John Beshara, was placed on administrative leave in April 2016. The university had questions about Beshara’s use of his work vehicle and said it would not renew his contract. He retired May 31.
The university’s size drew Scott to YSU. Notre Dame College has an enrollment of about 2,000 students; YSU has about 12,500 students. Scott said a larger campus is more attractive to him than moving to a municipality.
“My focus is college campus policing,” he said. “I’ve really fallen in love with it.”
Campus policing creates opportunities for community engagement, Scott said, whether through helping students to classes or opening buildings for faculty.
Scott said it’s important to build trust between the police and the campus community. One way he accomplished this at Notre Dame College was by increasing the number of officers on bicycles. He said it creates positive interactions, and the college saw thefts from vehicles decline after they increased bike and foot patrols.
“There’s a time and a place to be in a patrol car,” Scott said. “There’s also a time and a place to be out there and visible.”
With state lawmakers allowing campuses in the state the option to permit concealed-carry, Scott said it will have to be considered seriously at some point.
At the moment, he’s neutral, but he doesn’t think college campuses are ready because of the risk of friendly fire.
“If you can’t discriminate between who the target is and who isn’t,” Scott said. “People’s lives are in danger.”
He also addressed hot-button topics such as race and sexual assault. They reformed the process of responding to sexual assault at Notre Dame to only require one interview for victims in what Scott called an effort to make it easier for them.
He said he’s not afraid to confront issues about race and policing, either, and that the diversity in his department at Notre Dame mirrors the diversity of the student body.
“I take a lot of pride in that,” Scott said.
The final candidate, current Interim YSU Police Chief Shawn Varso, will have an open forum at 1:30 p.m. today in the board of trustees meeting room in Tod Hall.