Travis MacLellan
Reporter
As the earsplitting fire alarm rings throughout Columbus Hall, residents scramble to get out of bed, residential advisors gather students and Mississippi University for Women’s police officers come to deal with the situation.
Fire alarms and other small situations around campus are normal parts of the day in the life of a police officer on The W’s campus.
One of the faces most often seen at these kinds of events is Randy Vibrock, the chief of police at The W. Vibrock has been a part of the force for nearly 17 years and has been chief for nearly eight years.
“Like most children, y’know, law enforcement is always something of interest, it looks really fun, really cool on TV,” says Vibrock. “As I grew up, it wasn’t necessarily top of my list as far as career paths.”
Vibrock goes on to say that he was encouraged to join The W’s police department by two officers whom he would interact with at The W’s recreation center.
He started as a non-certified patrol officer. About two weeks after starting, he went to the Mississippi Law Enforcement Training Academy located in Pearl, Mississippi. After graduating from the academy, Vibrock came back to The W as a certified patrol officer.
Soon Vibrock moved up to being a corporal, then a sergeant, then the assistant chief of the department, and then, about a year later, he finally became the chief, which was his goal.
Vibrock does say that while he has responsibilities that are exclusive to being the chief, because of the small size of the department, he will often don his patrol officer hat and walk around and survey The W’s campus like the other officers.
One such officer is patrol officer Jherlisa Jones. Jones started working for The W’s police department in 2024 and says she has always wanted to be in law enforcement.
McDevitt Hall, home to The W’s police department.
Photo by Spectator staff
“It’s really to be of service, to be someone who wouldn’t escalate things and to keep my community safe,” says Jones.
Jones graduated from the police academy last year and is now a certified patrol officer, who says it is great working for The W’s police department. Getting to meet and interact with students and help them with small situations, such as unlocking their cars, are things she said that she loves doing.
Of course, the job isn’t always fun. While most situations on campus are small and easy to handle, they are still situations that need to be handled. Another thing Jones says that is a challenge about her job is that when she works nightshifts, it limits the amount of time she can spend with her wife.
The W’s police department is the only police department Jones has worked with, and she plans to stay there for a long time. She hopes that someday she can work her way up to becoming the chief.
While some officers like Jones and Vibrock began their law enforcement careers at The W’s police department, not all did. Patrol officer Michael Reynolds started in the military police before transferring to The W after six years. He is the newest officer at The W’s police department, having been hired at the beginning of the year.
There are not many differences between working in the military police versus campus police, according to Reynolds. He still goes on patrols, takes care of students and deals with situations in his area.
Reynolds is currently on the night shift and says that not much happens.
“Most of the fun, pizazz stuff happens during the day,” Reynolds says, “but at night, typically it’s coming in, locking up, securing gates and buildings, doing community policing around.”
Reyonlds goes on to say that since the night shift begins at 6 p.m., there is still a window of time that he and the other officers on the night shift can interact with students.
Officers are encouraged to go on patrols around campus frequently so they can be proactive instead of reactive. While many police stations are focused on reacting to situations after they happen, including crimes, The W’s police department focuses on nurturing a safe environment by working in partnership with the students and faculty.
They are proactive, keeping the community safe by going on frequent patrols, parking at obvious spots on campus to make their presence known and coming to many on-campus events.