In a pivotal moment for the El Camino College Police Department, interim Police Chief Ruben Lopez discussed his role as a leader overseeing the safety of the college.

Lopez assumed the role of leadership after former Police Chief Michael Trevis retired in June after 16 years of service. The Union spoke with Lopez to discuss his duties and campus safety.

Q: What does your role as interim chief of police entail?

A: My role as interim chief is to make sure that our campus is safe, and that we provide a good community surrounding for our students. Our goal is to support student success, to make sure that everyone here doesn’t have to think about safety, that they can come here, they can go to class, they can not worry about things. We really like to engage our student population, and we really want to make sure that they have a positive experience, so I would really encourage people to reach out to us, to just say hi if they see us driving around. If they have any questions, ask and get to know our police department. My duties include making sure that operations are stable, and that we have a safe and secure school for our students.

Q: What are you currently doing to step up safety on campus?

A: Right now, we have police officers on campus. We called in extra police officers, so we have extra staff, we have extra cadets. If you’ve seen them on campus, we’re driving around there either in golf carts or they’re on patrol, and we’ve called in extra police officers at night as well, because I know that the night students are also concerned.

Q: What are some challenges you’re expecting?

A: I think the challenge is, as a sergeant, I interacted a lot with the staff, faculty, and the students, and I think the challenge is for me to really reach out to our student population to see what it is they think of their police department, what it is they want us to do here on campus, how can we help, and getting more of an interaction with our student population here.

Q: What do you want the community to know in your role as interim chief?

A: Our campus community, our staff, faculty, administrators, students, and our visitors here on campus, I want them to know that we are here for them. I want them to know that we’re open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If somebody has a problem, I encourage everybody to come, even if it’s not a police-related problem, maybe we can point you in the right direction or give you some advice. A lot of my officers have been here for a long time, so even if it’s not a police or criminal-related problem, come to us because we have a lot of resources, we have a lot of connections. Even if it’s something that has to do with basic needs, we can point them to the Basic Needs Center, and say “Hey, Sharonda’s the person to talk to over there.” I encourage people to come and communicate with us and talk to us because we’re here to help.

Q: When can we expect an announcement for a permanent police chief?

A: I wouldn’t know. That is on the administration. I know that I’m scheduled to be the interim chief of police until Dec. 31, so on Jan. 1 they will have somebody new in place.

(This Q&A has been edited for readability.)