SMU is located within one of the worst cities for crime in thenation. One out of every 10 Dallas citizens will be crime victimsin 2003 if the current crime rate trends continue through the endof the year, based on recent FBI crime statistics.
Such statistics make students like sophomore Rebecca Fitzgibbonsrelieved that SMU police carry firearms with them while they patrolthe campus. However, that was not always the case. There was a timewhen only unarmed security guards patrolled the campus. However,one man pressed for change.
Gordon Martin, who devoted his 30-year law enforcement career toSMU, retired this year. Martin has spent years ushering the campuscommunity through the changing landscape of law enforcement andhelped change the laws to allow police officers at privateuniversities to carry firearms.
Rick Shafer, assistant chief of the SMU Police Department, saidthat he knows of no other person who has worked in the departmentthat long.
“He was here even before it was known as a policedepartment,” Shafer said.
When Martin arrived, SMU only had security guards protecting thecampus. According to Martin, his main job was to open the dormdoors for girls after hours and let them in. Then, he had to standand wait for them to flip a little light switch. “Rain,shine, sleet or snow — you were out in the middle of thatquad watching for lights,” Martin recalled.
Times have changed since Martin first arrived on campus.”SMU is no longer in ‘the bubble,'” Martinsaid. “[The police] use to check everybody we found walkingat night. If they didn’t have an ID, they were escorted offcampus immediately, but now it is entirely different. You gotpeople coming in from the outside and doing things that theywouldn’t have dreamt of doing before.”
In 1971, the Texas licensing agency that commissions peaceofficers did not recognize private colleges. Martin, cognizant ofthe increasing crime rate on campus, decided to get involved in alawsuit challenging that ruling.
A state judge ruled in favor of the college in 1971, so that SMUsecurity personnel could now be commissioned and “vested withall the powers, privileges, and immunities of peace officers”which allowed them to carry firearms.
SMU now has 23 licensed police officers “that have tomaintain and meet the same professional standards as any otherpolice department”, Lt. Jerry Norris said.
The Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Educationmandates training and licensing requirements for all peace officersin the state.
Norris said that not only do SMU officers “meet or exceedthe standards set by that agency,” but they “arecontinuously training to stay updated on current trends.”
“Gordon wasn’t a real aggressive officer as far asmaking a whole bunch of arrests, writing tickets and so forth. …He was more of the public service type. … He truly wanted todo things that would help people,” Shafer said.
Martin moved close to the campus early in his career so he couldbe called upon to respond to emergencies from his home, Norrissaid.
He would be the only police officer for the campus at nightduring his early years on duty.
“He liked that shift because he got to see and interactwith students when they were sometimes in a time of need late atnight,” Shafer said.
It was during one of these night shifts that Martin met a youngstudent named Julie Wiksten, a sophomore advisor who had late nightdesk duty in the residence halls.
“Gordon, as a police officer, would come and do his roundsin the residence halls … and we just started kind of havingconversations and struck up a friendship,” Wiksten, thedirector of auxiliary services at SMU said.
Her junior year she wore her hair in pigtails on days she wouldwear her sorority jersey.
Wiksten said that Martin would yell, “Hey puppydogtails!” It is something she’ll remember all her life,she said.
“I know he was one of the first staff members I met oncampus, and the impact he made on my life, its prettyincredible,” Wiksten said.
Now that she is a faculty member, Wiksten asks herself,”What kind of impact am I making on students lives? Just bysaying hello, being nice to them and being concerned about them— all those things that Gordon was for me.”
Shafer said Martin has implemented into his job a philosophythat emphasizes quality service to the SMU community.
Martin volunteered to check all of the emergency call boxes andlights around campus.
Once a week he would compile a list of every light that was outaround SMU, and he would try to get everything fixed.
“Most people don’t want to do [that job.] They thinkit is a pain. But he knew it was important to other people sotherefore it was important to him,” Shafer said.
Wiksten also remembers seeing Martin during a tragic time on theSMU campus, the year a fraternity house burned down, killing one ofits members.
She said it was a very emotional time for her because she was alittle sister for that fraternity. She remembers Martin was therefor the students and supported them during this time.
While he has enjoyed his job with the campus police, Martin saysit is time for him to relax.
“I’m going to do a lot of hunting, fishing andtaking care of grandchildren,” Martin said.
With such a long tenure at SMU, police agree that Martin hasbeen an indispensable tool in crime prevention over the years.
Norris said that Martin’s “presence around campuswill be missed”, but he will surely “be remembered formany years to come.”
