The Optimist (Abilene, Tex.), Vol. 68, No. 4, Ed. 1, Friday, September 26, 1980 Page: 1 of 27
twenty seven pages : illus. ; page 11 x 8 in. Digitized from 35 mm. microfilm.View a full description of this newspaper.
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Optimist
September 26 1980
Abilene Christian University
Volume 68 Number 4
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Voter registration to end Oct. 5;
students encouraged to sign up
Voter registration for the Nov. 4 general
election ends Oct. 3 and all postcard
registration requests must be postmarked
by Oct. 5.
Only persons who are registered in
Taylor County arc able to vote in Abilene
in the November election. A student who is
registered to vote in another county may
register again as a Taylor County voter or
vote absentee in his home county said
Pauline Pitmane assistant county elec-
tions administrator.
Students may register in the elections
office of the Taylor County Courthouse to
vote in Abilene.
Absentee ballots can be obtained
through the mail by writing the county
clerk's office in the applicant's home
county. The request should include voter
registration number and precinct number.
Absentee ballots can be mailed in as
early as 60 days before the election. Voting
will end Oct. 31 for the Nov. 4 election.
The Nov. 4 ballot in Texas will include
president and vice president; two railroad
commissioners; associate justices of the
state Supreme Court for Places 1 2 3 and
4; Places 1 2 and 3 for the Court of
Criminal Appeals; and nine constitutional
amendments.
In this district the ballot also will include
U.S. representative state senator and
representative district member of the
state board of education sheriff precinct 1
and 3 county commissioners and several
constables and justices of the peace.
Polls for the ACU area will be located at
the fire station on E.N. 19th Street.
Ski-masked man eludes officers
after entering Sherrod apartment
Photo by Nmi Whltwortti
Soggy Stroll
Linde Thompson a junior mass communication major from Boulder Colo.
passes another umbrella-toter during the Wednesday rain. The unusual oc-
curence of precipitation in Abilene brought out a number of slickers and um-
brellas all over the Key City.
A prowler who appeared to be wearing a
dark colored ski-mask eluded three ACU
security guards in Sherrod Residential
Park early Monday morning said Garvin
Beauchamp vice president for student
services.
A resident in the apartment complex
called the guards after hearing a woman in
the next apartment scream said
Beauchamp. The woman told police she
started screaming when she received a
call from an unidentified man who
mumbled something to her.
The security guards notified the Abilene
police department of the call but were
Peace officers may be phased out
ACU considering change in security
By KEN GATES
Optimist Staff
The ACU police department will
probably be eliminated next year and
replaced by an unarmed commissioned
security force said Garvin Beauchamp
vice president for student services.
Since the early 1970s when Ben Holloway
was director of security the campus has
had its own police department commonly
referred to as the security department.
Under the current system ACU is
protected by graduates of the West Central
Texas Law Enforcement School a six-week-long
peace officer training program
sponsored by the state. The peace officers
work with untrained students hired as non-
commissioned peace officers.
Two peace officers Steve Myer and
Larry BramWett presently work for the
university. ACU's non-commissioned
peace officers are Les Hopper Jeff
Roberts Dan Gowen Robert Taylor Tim
Dolberry Marvin Johnston and William
King.
The proposed change in the department
would eliminate peace officers and create
a force made up of students trained by
Oilfield Security Investigation Inc.
Two ACU police department employees
director of security Bert Lana and Ray
Wheeler have completed OSI training.
Lana said that the rest of the force except
peace officers will have completed the
training by the first week of October.
The difference between the two types of
protection is in the extent of officer
training. Bramblett and Myer have
completed 240 hours of peace officer
training which includes intensive study of
the Texas Penal Code the Code of
Criminal Procedures and 16 hours of
firearm training.
The state runs a background check and a
psychological screen of each prospective
peace officer.
Security officers trained by OSI spend
"four or five days" in the classroom and
five hours on the firing range according to
an employee of OSI.
Beauchamp said that sending students
to peace officer training school is not
justified because of the relatively short
time they will be working for the school
especially since the state requirement for
peace officer certification has been
lengthened to 320 hours.
"We can receive adequate training I
feel from OSI" he said.
Beauchamp said the training is
adequate because the proposed force will
rely on the Abilene Police Department to
handle tougher situations. "I feel in the
long run" he said " that it is better
procedure to allow the pros ... to do it."
The ACU peace officers currently have
full police authority on university-owned
property and can legally carry guns at all
times.
Security officers working for a com-
missioned security force are authorized to
carry guns if they are wearing a uniform
and badge and if the weapon is in plain
sight but Beauchamp said ACU security
officers will not carry guns for any reason.
"I don't think it would be proper for our
people including myself to be in a shoot-
out with someone" he said.
The two campus peace officers
however do carry guns when on duty.
A patrol captain for the Abilene Police
Department Sgt. Marvin Sanders agreed
with Beauchamp that ACU security would
be better off without guns. He said student
morale would be inmproved if officers did
not wear guns.
He admitted however that there would
be "scattered situations" in which a
firearm might help.
Some of ACU's patrolmen cited an
apartment burglary in the Sherrod
Apartment Complex this summer as one
such "scattered situation."
Two security guards who were called to
check into the burglary found the burglar
in an apartment. The unarmed officers
were unable to stop him as he escaped into
a nearby thicket.
A few of the patrolmen did not like the
idea of being unarmed when facing
someone like the rapist who struck at
Sherrod this summer. That incident
prompted Meyer and Bramblett with the
encouragement of an Abilene police of-
ficer to begin carrying guns.
One ACU patrolman Jeff Roberts
senior management major said he would
rather do his job without guns.
"I've been around guns all my life. I
know how to shoot them; I know ' jw to
first to arrive at the scene at about 2 a.m.
One of ACU's peace officers Larry
Bramblett saw the prowler near the
woman's apartment. The prowler ran
around the corner of the apartment before
Bramblett could order him to stop.
The police arrived a short time later and
combed the area without success.
About 20 minutes after police left a man
fitting the description of the suspect ran to
a motorcycle and took off saud
Beauchamp. He added however that the
guards are not sure it was the same man.
Investigators have been unable to
determine if the prowler had any con-
nection with a series of rapes committed
by a ski-masked man in Abilene including
the sexual assault on a student and her
overnight female guest in Sherrod June 9.
Police also said it was impossible to
determine if the man who called the
woman was the same one later found
prowling around her. apartment.
OffilSOCflS
Setting it up
Coach Cathy Moore
shows off her team
B-8
Quaint quilting
.ACU museum makes home
for historical wall hanging
B-1
A different image
Women Bible students
change usual stereotype
of a man's major
B-2
Starting out
Kappa Delian Shri
becomes the newest
women's social club
A-14
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The Optimist (Abilene, Tex.), Vol. 68, No. 4, Ed. 1, Friday, September 26, 1980, newspaper, September 26, 1980; Abilene, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth92002/m1/1/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Abilene Christian University Library.