The Brown & White

At 6:30 a.m. on any given Friday, most students can be found sleeping off a future hangover in their bed. Some may just be coming home after a night on the town.

For Lehigh Chief of Police Edward Shupp, however, the day began over an hour ago. It's dark outside, the campus is quiet, but the University Police Department is already bustling. Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me" plays on a radio set to 104.1 FM - a bit louder than average background noise - and phone calls are already coming into the department.

Shupp reviews all of last night's on-campus reports first thing each morning on his three-screened computer, perpetually sipping on his reheated Dunkin' Donuts coffee ("no donuts, though").

The police officers' night shift ends at 7 a.m., and Shupp needs to be informed for the shift meeting that covers any break ins, student interactions or on-campus incidents during the night. He shuffles through GPS data that documents police cars' exact whereabouts and driving speed to the second, and heads across the hall to the squad room.

This Friday morning's shift meeting is quick - three on-duty policemen discuss a student asleep on the University Center front lawn and another charged with disorderly conduct after damaging her dorm room. One police car's radio level is high.

"That's a quiet Thursday [night]," Shupp said. "There are usually multiple incidents."

A Monday morning, on the other hand, can have more than 100 reports waiting to be reviewed before the 7 a.m. shift meeting.

The disorderly conduct case has taken the spotlight this morning. Each case doesn't simply require dishing out a citation.

"We're educators first, then enforcers," Shupp said.

Students believe the Lehigh police are only concerned with punishing alcohol use, Shupp said. But his responsibility for this situation, for example, also required calling in staff psychologist Laura Evans to assess the student, organizing contact with the parents and meeting with Assistant Dean of Students Chris Mulvihill to obtain an outside perspective on the incident.

The student is detained in the department's holding cell until the counselor arrives for the morning. She cannot leave the building until her citation has been issued and, more importantly, until authorities determine if she's not a threat to herself.

She is extensively assessed by the counselor in the interview room. The session is regularly monitored by cameras and a two-way mirror - Shupp checks in on numerous occasions, as do other counselors, Mulvihill and on-duty policemen.

The counseling session is a standard procedure for an incident like disorderly conduct. Shupp is not afraid to pull in outside help from other departments to guarantee that student situations are handled optimally.

"It is critical for us to be able to rely on other departments," Shupp said. "We're not psychologists, we're not psychiatrists. They are. I'm not afraid to punt the ball."

Mulvihill arrives promptly at 8:30 a.m. to discuss the disorderly student's situation. The two have done this before - Mulvihill refers to Shupp as "Eddie" and leans back comfortably in the yellow leather couch in the office. Can the student leave on her own? Do her parents know yet? Has she had previous infractions?

The morning is picking up now. Shupp's windows peek out to early rising students walking to class or to Baker's Junction. Both Shupp and Mulvihill are now required to multitask: They discuss while texting, breaking to answer calls, and traveling to the interview room to look at the camera recording of the student's counseling session.

By 9 a.m., Mulvihill has gone back to his office and Shupp is racing. Both his cell phone and office phone ring every few minutes. Police department secretary Amy Costa said the hectic schedule is nothing out of the ordinary.

"He's one of the busiest people I've met in my life," Costa said.

Preparation for Halloween weekend and Lehigh-Lafayette week has been intense, Shupp said. Police officers will rack up about 800 hours of overtime just during Lehigh-Laf week.

Sergeant Brian Kelly is in charge of organizing police schedules, and agrees that Lehigh-Laf scheduling is a full-time job.

"It's a challenge," Kelly said. "Officers can't work too many hours. The middle shift may work nights, but then we'll need someone for the game too."

Meetings can occupy the majority of Shupp's work day. Just the night before, Shupp attended his last meeting at 7 p.m. after a full work day. On any given day, he can meet with the Athletics Department, Dean of Students Office, Vice Provost, outside police departments, Student Senate or other student groups.

Most of these meetings cover drinking safety. Shupp dedicates significant time to dispelling the student focus on underage drinking.

"We need to be able to educate and address," he said. "Personal safety is paramount. Your stolen GPS can be replaced. Your laptop can be replaced. But you can't be."

The student perception of the police is less than friendly, Shupp said. Andrew Woodward, '11, agreed.

"I believe the student perception is that they're hunting underage drinkers and not concerned with the student safety," Woodward said.

Woodward said the department's offer to ride with officers on a Friday or Saturday night helped foster student understanding.

"When you do the ride along and you see someone stumbling on the stairs, the student has made it obvious," he said. "But deal with them cordially, and they'll deal with you cordially."

Shupp monitors the success of programs like the ride alongs. He saves noteworthy statistics on past infractions or records in crammed filing cabinets or his large bookshelf. At any given time, he can immediately locate the single paper with "underage drinking citations since 1994" amidst his folders of old newspaper articles and police records.

This year, for example, 47 underage drinking citations have been issued so far. Fellow students called in over two-thirds of the students cited, and 26 were sent to the hospital.

"We don't have to look for things, they find us," Shupp said.

Active steps are made to dispel this notion, Shupp said. Remember the Bethlehem Police Department's grant to uncover underage drinkers? The Lehigh Police received the same grant - it's for any actions that improve the quality of life related to alcohol.

"We had the same grant, but we used it for additional patrol and follow up," Shupp said. "They're enforcers, we're educators."

Other safety-enhancing methods include the protocol for approaching police, an increased effort to reach out to students walking alone or late at night, and the police escort service.

Shupp says safety education is the department's priority. This year alone, the department has held 51 safety resource programs with 5,100 students in total.

Besides, Shupp says, a police mistake in citations results in a $25,000 fine. Each disciplinary action is very carefully deliberated.

The department's dedication to safety and alcohol education has paid off. In 1994, 98 students were arrested during Greek Week. In 2007, 8 students were.

Shupp has seen it all in his 30 years at the Lehigh police department. Once in the mid-1980s, while a police officer, Shupp was the first on the scene of a student destroying dormitory doors with a chainsaw. The student came at him with the machine revved and only dropped the chainsaw at gunpoint.

"Being here a long time, I've seen it at its worst," Shupp said.

Costa, department secretary, said Shupp's long-term experience at Lehigh adds to his ability to run the department.

"I've worked for another police department, and he knows his job," Costa said. "He's very knowledgeable about the university, his staff, what's going on. The chief makes it very clear what's expected."

Shupp fosters a sense of department community, Costa said. Officer of the Month awards are handed out, for instance.

Kelly said he has worked at Lehigh for 18 years - as a security guard, police officer and ultimately sergeant - because of his peers.

"The job is a challenge. Believe it or not, I like the people I work with," he said. "I have a lot of friends, in and out of the police department."

Fostering a department community, educating the campus on alcohol use, meeting with groups and offices on campus, supervising disciplinary incidents, communicating with each police officer on duty - all are a standard day at the office for Chief Shupp.

As his day winds down, his last meeting done with, Shupp's office windows are dark once again.

"Shupp has been around for 30 plus years," Woodward said. "He's a great guy. And I look at [the police] more as friends than enforcers. One of them offered me a ride home from the library the other day."