The lack of tradition within the offices of the Eastern Michigan University (EMU) Department of Police and Public Safety is singular. No decorations, commendations, photographs, or old regalia are on display. Guardian organizations tend to live their traditions.* Police forces and armies become pathogenic when they are severed from their pasts and futures. In the worst cases, the failures result in horrific losses of life. Most commonly, the lack of responsibility is evidenced as a lack of response.
The EMU Police Department (PD) faced its first stresses early. Political unrest in the 1960s centered on university campuses. EMU was only one small place where rallies were called and demonstrations were organized until protests erupted. The EMU PD had only a minimal role. When reporting the most violent protests, the Eastern Echo student newspaper referred to the department as the “campus security force” or “security guards” as often as they called them the “police department.” Favorable publicity in the Eastern Echo stated pointedly that these professionals were not rent-a-cops. In truth, at those protests on this campus, the university police department was overshadowed by city, county and state agencies.
At the same time, the university police took an interpersonal route that mitigated unrest and defused violence.
Read full paper on Google Documents here (opens new window).
* All societies have traditions. However, in contrast to guardian forces, commercial enterprises survive and thrive by means of what Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter called “creative destruction”: out with the old; in with the new. Products, services, employees, customers, and suppliers all change, as does the public image or brand of the enterprise. Police and military corps are slow to change their regalia; some never do.