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Police officer Wilson stays close to public safety roots
By Adam Czech
 Media Credit: Blair Schlichte Officer Erik Wilson was a public safety officer for four years before he joined the St. Cloud Police Department.
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From 1998 to 2002, Officer Erik Wilson of the St. Cloud Police Department dealt with parking tickets, drunken students and medical emergencies as a public safety officer at St. Cloud State.
While dealing with these situations was difficult, they pale in comparison to what Wilson has had to deal with in his short time as a member of the St. Cloud Police Department.
"I've seen more stuff here (as a police officer) in six months than in my whole time as a public safety officer," Wilson said.
No longer does Wilson deal only with tire clamps and college kids. Now it's speeding tickets, domestic cases and even homicide.
But don't be confused. Wilson still relishes his time as a public safety officer.
"I still go back and talk to some of the directors," he said. "They're kind of mentors to me."
Wilson progressed through the ranks of public safety from a patrol officer, to a sergeant and, finally, to lieutenant.
As a patrol officer, Wilson's duties included just that-patrolling. As a sergeant, he mainly observed certain areas of patrol and was not as visible as a patrol officer. As a lieutenant, he oversaw the entire patrol, a position that has since been filled by a full time employee.
Wilson mainly worked the day shift in his time at public safety. This left him dealing more with medical emergencies and thefts.
"Once I had a person's pacemaker malfunction," he said. "Then there was a domestic between a boy and girl at Mitchell Hall where the boy kept lighting off these pop bottle bombs."
Wilson feels that dealing with situations like these molded him into the officer that he is today. When dealing with a violent or irrational person, he knows how to handle the situation, not inflame it.
"Those skills to verbally communicate - to be more patient - has helped immensely in this job (as a police officer)," he said. "Usually, you're the first thing people see on campus. You have to be calm and in control. To do that, you can't just go around swearing at everybody."
Drillhead
Things were a bit different when Sgt. Lori Irvin, an eight-year member of the St. Cloud Police Department, served for one year as a St. Cloud State Public Safety Officer in 1992.
"They go through a lot more training now," Irvin said. "When I was there it was pretty basic."
Wilson went in 10 days prior to the start of school for his training when he was an officer. Officers were trained in such thing as drug recognition, defensive tactics and verbal communication during this period. He was also assigned to a field training officer.
As far as interaction and cooperation between the police and public safety, Irvin said that public safety knows when to call for assistance. Otherwise, the police department tries to leave them alone.
"We patrol the area and make our presence known, but we try to let them alone," she said. "If a victim wants police intervention, they are entitled to have it. They also call us for all medical emergencies."
Public safety officers also assist the police department in finding buildings on campus and with background on certain situations. However, they're not involved in the interview process.
In her time at public safety, Irvin dealt with many of the same things as Wilson.
"It depended on the shift you worked," she said. "At night you had more intoxicated students and vandalism. During the day it was a lot of medicals. A lot of people don't realize that we deal with medicals as well."
She also echoed Wilson's sentiments about public safety and people skills.
"It gave me experience in dealing with people and hostile people," she said. "It's good experience. You come in as a police officer with the basic knowledge on laws of arrest and how to deal with people in conflict."
While both officers felt it wasn't an absolute must that students striving to be police officers should be public safety officers first, they both felt that it could only be beneficial.
"You know what you're getting into," Wilson said. "It gives you the skills to be able to work in public."
While clamping someone's tire may not be the same as being the first to arrive on a homicide scene, a future police officer has to start somewhere. Wilson and Irvin did.
Now they see something different every day, but at least they were prepared for it.
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