On Wednesday, Oct. 2, students at De Anza College passed under blue tents in the main quad for the Foothill-De Anza Police Department’s “Pop with a Cop” event.
Police officers and staff, including Chief Daniel Acosta and Sgt. Jeff McCoy, mingled with students, handing out popsicles and police-themed stress balls.
The event is intended to provide an opportunity for dialogue and to dispel apprehensions between law enforcement and students.
Training and Community Relations Supervisor Joy Garza passed out flyers and promotional items.
“We’re promoting a two-hour active shooter response class online next week, which we encourage all students, staff and faculty to attend,” Garza said.
Garza also added that events like these help bring awareness to police presence and build rapport with students in a more casual setting.
“The idea is to have conversations and let people ask whatever they want — whether it’s personal or professional. The basic goal with ‘Pop with a Cop’ is to have these moments where people realize we’re just humans like everyone else,” Acosta said.
Acosta said he has been with the department for over five years.
While the goal of “Pop with a Cop” was to foster communication, some students were drawn to the event by the novelty of being able to see officers and equipment up close.
“I saw the cop cars parked outside the library so I went to check it out, I used to want to be a cop when I was a kid so that’s also why I checked it out,” said Logan Yip, 18, an accounting major.
One student, Ridhi Phapal, 19, undecided major, said she’s now thinking about applying for a position in the campus police department after attending the event.
“I don’t feel nervous approaching police officers on campus. There’s this bias that they’re going to harm us or give us tickets, but having conversations like this makes it easier,” said Phapal.
Not everyone feels at ease with campus police. Controversy over police presence on school campuses dates back to the late 19th century.
Yale University became the first accredited campus to have police officers in 1894, but modern policing on college campuses surged in the 1960s as protests on college campuses against racial inequality and the Vietnam War brought heightened attention to campus safety and security.
In situations like the Kent state shootings in 1970, these protests were brutally cracked down on. Since then, student and campus police interactions have evolved, but so too have the concerns over police presence.
“I have heard directly from students, faculty and staff about their experiences with our police department,” said James Nguyen, a political science professor and the Faculty Association’s vice president. “These accounts range from general reports of racial profiling — such as being followed on campus by an officer based on their appearance or being harassed while sitting in their car — to more specific incidents.”
Nguyen also cited an instance of a Black faculty member being harassed, stating he was approached and harassed by an officer while in the Baldwin Winery building, with the officer questioning his legitimacy as a faculty member.
Nguyen acknowledged Chief Acosta’s efforts to improve relations by adopting a community policing model. Still, he warned against the police department’s recent proposal to adopt tasers, saying it would likely damage relations between the police and the campus community, making many feel less safe.
Acosta recognizes that events like “Pop with a Cop” only scratch the surface of fixing deeper issues, but it’s a start.
“It makes me sad when students or staff are afraid to approach us, especially when they may be missing out on important information, like legal and medical assistance, financial aid information,” Acosta said. “I usually tell people, ‘Don’t compare me to an officer in Minnesota until you know me.’ That comparison isn’t fair.”
Despite these efforts, the shadow of national controversies, particularly in the wake of the George Floyd murder in 2020, looms large. Acosta himself noted that “Everything could be going great, then another officer does something bad in another part of the country and suddenly we’re all painted with the same brush.”
As the De Anza campus police work to improve relations with students and faculty, events like “Pop with a Cop” highlight both the progress made and the challenges that remain in fostering trust and transparency within the community. As the broader national conversation around policing continues to shape student and campus police divide, the efforts to bridge that divide are ongoing.