At the beginning of each shift, Officer Wilfredo “Willie” Padilla Jr. checks his equipment and videotapes his report. Padilla is 28 years old. His father was born in Puerto Rico, and his mother is an immigrant from El Salvador. Padilla grew up in north Newark and now lives in west Newark. If things work out financially, he hopes to buy a house in the next couple of years and move to a better neighborhood. Today his goal is to work through his shift for the University Police at Rutgers-Newark.
His superior, Lt. Robert Hahn, says that Padilla is a very bright, friendly and capable officer. On Thursday, December 13, 2007, his shift began at 2 p.m. That morning he finally got to go to sleep around 7:00. He had been out all night and the day before, but he wasn’t partying. He was working a double shift, from Wednesday at 2 p.m. to Thursday at 6 a.m., because a fellow officer was out with an injury.
About a half hour into his shift, Padilla pulls his patrol car up to the corner of Martin Luther King Drive and Warren Avenue and parks across from the front entrance to Bradley Hall. The afternoon is somewhat cool. He sits inside the car, heat blasting, and writes information in his daily report log. He’s keeping an eye on high school students who are getting out of school for the day. This is one of the routine duties officers are assigned (according to seniority) by the sergeant at the beginning of each shift. A couple of weeks ago, when officers weren’t available for this task, two high school students robbed a college student.
In high school Padilla wanted to be a policeman. He didn’t think a college education was necessary, but he decided to go anyway. He worked his last two years of college as a Rutgers-Newark security guard. After he graduated with a bachelor of science in criminal justice two years ago, he went to the police academy and joined Rutgers University-Newark’s police department as an officer.
“College education is important to being a police officer,” Padilla says. “It changes a person’s perspective for the better. A person gains knowledge about a breadth of matter in college that they wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to. This increases their awareness of various people, cultures, ages and economics, which helps them communicate more effectively with a wider variety of people.” He has noticed that most new hires to the Rutgers police department have bachelor’s degrees, and he sees a difference in the way they communicate, orally and in writing. “They seem to have more insight, more knowledge and more awareness,” he says. Communication, he says, plays a major role in being an effective police officer.
Off the job, Padilla spends a lot of time alone. His girlfriend has been away at school in the Philippines for almost a year, so he thinks about her. He likes to debate about illegal immigration and politics. He wants to change the world, beginning with police officers. “Every officer should have a minimum of 60 college credits. A college education helps officers communicate and conduct themselves with more confidence. It helps make them more secure and better officers.”
According to research, education does have a positive impact on police performance. As William Terrill observed in his 2007 article “Police Education, Experience, and the Use of Force,” published in Criminal Justice and Behavior, “Officers with any college use less verbal force compared to officers with high school education. Officers with a four-year degree use significantly less physical force compared to officers with high school education.”
The high school kids clear out at about 3:15 p.m. In his patrol car Padilla weaves up and down the streets around campus and reports his activity on the radio. “Many residents are involved with the university and will complain if we don’t show a steady presence,” he says. He hears from students, his family and people in the neighborhood how much they hate cops. He says, “What does set me off is when someone is rude on initial contact. I think, ‘We don’t even know each other and you’re already talking to me that way. I gotta watch you.’ It shows they don’t have respect for authority. People should know,” Padilla says, “we are here to help.”
The next stop on his routine: a walk through Dana Library, then Robeson Campus Center. Nothing happens. No news is good news. It’s nightfall and time for dinner break. Hopefully, he’ll be able to catch a quick nap after he eats. Then he’ll finish the rest of his shift.
Kim S. Jones is a Rutgers student. Posted September 2008.
