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All TCU. All the time.

TCU 360

TCU 360

All TCU. All the time.

TCU 360

Students discuss religious topics in a small group. (Photo courtesy of tcuwesley.org)
Wednesday nights at TCU’s Methodist campus ministry provide religious exploration and fellowship
By Boots Giblin, Staff Writer
Published Mar 27, 2024
Students at the Wesley said they found community on Wednesday nights.

A night on patrol with Campus police gives a look behind the badge

Though he has been hit in the head with a golf club and a fence post, Sgt. Alvin Allcon said he has never been severely injured in his 31-year career as a police officer.

“I’ve never lost time to an injury,” Allcon said.

Allcon, who has been with campus police for six years, previously worked as a Fort Worth police officer.

He began his career in patrol and then became a training officer. He then worked in the detective office and became a sergeant. After that, Allcon handled burglary cases before taking a role in administration and media relations. Later, he commanded the narcotics unit and then the fugitive section. Allcon then served as the K-9 and mounted commander before returning to an administrative role.

Steve McGee, Chief of TCU Police, said he is very grateful to have Allcon as a member of the university police.

“He’s an excellent officer,” McGee said. “He’s very experienced and brings a lot to the university. He also has a good disposition and can work with the students.”

Allcon expressed a soft spot for the K-9 unit, but said his favorite position was serving with media relations.

“We would give the media as much as we could without jeopardizing a case,” Allcon said. “I saw my role in that as being a part of a team and trying to give the people who were investigating the crime the opportunity to do that.”

Allcon said it was nerve-wracking when he had officers get into cars with drug dealers and attempt to make a buy.

“The narcotics guys scared me to death,” he said. “I was worried about them all the time.”

When students see police cars slowly driving through parking lots, Allcon said, he would like them to know they aren’t always checking for parking stickers.

“What I’m looking for is broken glass,” Allcon said. “Lately, we haven’t found any, which has been very good. I really hate to say anything because we’ve had a spell where we haven’t been hit that hard.”

Allcon said his shift, which usually runs from 2:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. and spans the whole campus, usually sees the most motor vehicle burglaries.

He said he sometimes sees cars with the windows down, but the strangest thing he has seen is a car left running with no driver around.

He said the evening and night shifts typically consist of providing security, locking and unlocking buildings, jump-starting vehicles and responding to alarm calls during their shifts.

“Anything can happen,” Allcon said. “The evening shift this year has been relatively quiet though.”

University officers typically patrol alone, so the squad car is filled with the sound of the radio.

“My undergraduate degree (from the University of Texas at Arlington) was in music,” he said. “(My professors) probably would say ‘we don’t know anything about him.’ I was really bad, but I managed to squeeze by.”

After graduating, Allcon said he didn’t think he was good enough to perform and he didn’t want to teach, so he joined the Navy Reserve and shipped out to Vietnam, where he served for two years.

“When I actually wound up going over there, it was the spring and summer of 1973. We had already signed the peace treaty, so the mission we were actually on was negotiating the release of POWs.”

Allcon said his crew was also responsible for detonating old mines by pulling a skid along the ground from a helicopter.

Allcon said that while they sometimes have to dispense discipline, campus police are looking out for the students’ best interests.

“We have a job that’s not always popular,” Allcon said. “It’s not something that’s personal. We’re trying to make sure (students) are safe. “We’re really not trying to ruin all their fun.”

He said police tend to join with the intention to help people, but they split into different departments because they don’t want to be a patrol officer.

“Eventually they get separated from the very duties they became a police officer for,” he said. “Most of the time, the patrol officer is the one helping people.”

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