For over 10 years, university police Sgt. Robert “Bobby” Garcia has patrolled the streets of campus, seeing the best and worst of college students.

“When things go down on this campus, they go down quickly,” Garcia said.

Hilltop Views went for two late-night ride-alongs with the University Police Department Nov. 17-18. We were given access to follow everything UPD does, including handling crime.

On the first night, UPD dealt with a car accident, a traffic violation and an incident involving public intoxication and urination. Garcia, along with a nighttime task force of three officers, had their hands full.

Near 11 p.m., a pizza delivery man crashed his car into the median on Woodward Street. His car was disabled and, given the time of night, UPD alongside the Austin Police Department, looked for potential signs of drug and alcohol usage. None were found, and the scene was handed over to APD since the crash occurred on a city road.

Campus stayed quiet until “drunk-thirty,” a term coined by some university officers for 2:30 a.m. Within minutes, a student ran the stop sign near the softball field, prompting UPD to stop the vehicle for having committed a traffic violation. 

Alcohol was detected on the breath of the underaged residential student operating the vehicle. The female student was not severely intoxicated and remained cooperative the entire time, eventually being released to the residence director and referred to the dean of students.

While two officers issued a traffic violation to the student, a third officer walking on foot, observed another student allegedly urinating in public outside of Hunt Hall.

The male student, a commuter, was verbally combative with the UPD officers, refusing to admit to any wrongdoing. 

The situation was further exacerbated by the student’s friend who began verbally interfering with the officer’s questioning.

The UPD officers became agitated at the situation and took control by separating the pair. 

The intoxicated student was given a ticket for consumption of alcohol by a minor, referred to the dean of students and released to a friend that lives off campus.

“There are a number of ways for us to handle students,” Garcia said. “Depends on what is called for.”

UPD officers, unlike city police, have the discretion to refer a student’s incident (typically a minor offense) to the dean of students and not give a citation or arrest the student.

 If a student is corporative and honest, UPD may try to help the student out, Garcia said.

In addition, Garcia tries to meet with the officers on his shift at least once per week to discuss current issues going on in the country — from officer-involved shootings to potential issues a college student may be facing.

“Being a police officer is one of the hardest jobs to get,” Garcia said. “But it’s one of the easiest to lose.”

When a video of an officer-involved shooting is trending on social media, the UPD officers analyze the encounter frame-by-frame to see what improvements could have been made by the officers and discuss proper protocol in case they are ever in a similar situation.

“No one hates a bad cop more than a good cop,” Garcia said. “If you’re someone who dislikes cops, you’re the type of person who should do a ride-along.”

Of the 13 officers on the university force, just less than half are either former students or currently enrolled in classes. This results in officers’ personal connection to the St. Edward’s community. Yet Garcia’s connection to the campus began earlier than most. 

As a young child, he lived in the neighborhood near St. Edward’s. He, his neighbors and cousins would run up to the red doors as fast as they could, touch the doors, and then run back home, believing that Main Building was haunted.

When deciding where to attend college, Garcia chose the university he knew and loved. One of his most influential philosophy professors is William Zanardi, who Garcia jokingly referred to as “a walking Socrates who belongs in a museum.” Garcia graduated with a degree in philosophy in 2004.

Garcia said one of the best tools a university police officers has is his or her heart. He states that it’s an officer’s  “job to be peace officers, not police officers.”

Full Disclosure: Hilltop Views is declining to report the names of people involved in all alleged crimes as the focus of the story is on what types of situations UPD deals with on a weekly basis. All St. Edward’s police reports are subject to open records laws and can be requested through UPD.