As students continue to adjust back to campus life and attend many “Weeks of Welcome” events, one opportunity they had was to attend the Out of Uniform event Sept. 5 to get to know Washburn University Police Department members as people, not just as WUPD officers. 

“This is the first of these events, but we’re hosting this to hopefully ease tension, bring us together and help us realize that they’re more than just a badge,” said DeMarques Hinds, WSGA diversity, equity and inclusion director. “We want to personify them instead of making them a [controversial] figure.”

The WUPD guests at the event were James Anguiano, police captain, and Chris Enos, chief of police. 

Anguiano and Enos opened the conversation by introducing the objective of the events and sharing with students what steps WUPD is taking to connect better with all students while understanding each student has different perspectives on the police force.

“We do diversity training, we have trained with Title IX, where we have trained with other organizations to train all our officers within requirements. Then as part of the state of Kansas, we’re required to do fair and partial policing training, which also includes diversity training,” Enos said.

With the rise of controversy that has surrounded the topic of police in recent years, WUPD is actively training its officers to police with these topics in mind to build stronger and better relationships with the students on campus while still being productive in their policing efforts. 

“I think it’s important to build the mindset and culture with our officers all the time. That’s why stuff like this is so important,” Anguiano said. “It’s about getting to know us as people, and that’s what I need our officers to do, is to get to know [the students].

“They’ve got to form a relationship with students no matter who they are and start to build that trust because when you need help, there’s a barrier to call the police. So we need to be out there building relationships with people so that when they do need our help, they’re not afraid to make that call.”

The conversation transitioned into a Q&A between attendees and the WUPD staff and students also shared some of their concerns with the officers. The open forum-like setup of the meeting allowed for students to ask questions about policing and more personal get-to-know-you questions to the WUPD members. 

Washburn Student Government Association, Washburn Black Student Union, Hispanic American Leadership Organization and Sigma Lambda Beta have plans to host more events similar to this to continue growing the relationship between Washburn students and WUPD. 

Edited by Jayme Thompson and Jeremy Ford