I decided to do a photo series on Public safety at Hofstra University. I have done a photo story on an employee and his usual dairy errands while working there. All the people working at Public safety are certified CRFs which stands for certified first responders. This training involves going back every 3 years to keep the certification and unless you do not go through the training you can not work there. Public safety keeps the University campus secure and protects every individual in it. They are there to protect the students, and to help them out in time of need or emergencies. It could be a small problem as opening a student’s university dorm door because they locked themselves out by mistake, to calling an ambulance and trying to help students out in cases of medical emergencies. Public Safety of Hofstra University consists of 60 part and full time employees. I decided to choose this topic because I wanted to highlight the the effort, and duties of people in this department. They may look like strict police officers on the outside, but once you interact with some of them, you realize they also have a soft side to their busy, pressurized lives. “The most important thing that we do is to make sure the students are safe, staff is safe, and the campus is safe.” Says Mr. Gary Cramer who this photo series is on.

This is Gary Cramer, who is in his 21st year of working at Public Safety for Hofstra University. He is now 55 years old and his father worked in the same department for 29 years.

He loves every part of his job here and would not trade it for anything.

His shift is from Wednesday through Sunday from 7am to 3pm. He starts his shift of by opening the gate and doors up of the Oak street center building on campus.

Public safety roughly receives 20 to 25 calls for different reasons daily such as students not being able to enter their rooms because they don’t have their keys, or they may have locked their keys inside their cars, to sometimes not being able to get the key out of the door in which case they get a locksmith for them.

It’s another call by a student to open their door as Mr. Cramer leaves the Public safety premises.

They have to take note of everything that they do while working which includes the time, name of the person, the building, and what exactly they were required to do.

One of public safety’s jobs is to drive to whatever building they get a call from to open the locked door for a specific student, or a teacher, or anyone working, or enrolled in the University.

Before driving back to the Public safety office, Gary Cramer shows me the emergency kit they always keep in the back of the public safety van. This tool shown in this is one that they use in case anyone needs urgent medical helped in terms of breathing. The kit also includes other emergency medicinal tools.

As we come to the topic of medical emergencies, Gary Cramer shares an incident with me that had a huge impact on his life. He witnessed the death of a student last year who had overdosed. “I started CPR right away. He was dead but I could not watch him just lie there. I had to do something, and because of the training I knew what to do. By the time the ambulance got there, they checked him again and he was gone. Because of that incident I had 3 crisis counsellors since I was very upset over it, and I cried my eyes out seeing the kid die.”

We made our way inside of the Public safety office after the car ride back. It is lunch time for Gary which is a half an hour break from 12 30 to 1 pm.

They have a room downstairs for all the employees where they have a fridge for their lunch, and snacks and a television where they can take a break during their lunch time. Gary watches Adam 12 during this time which is a Police show.

After lunch, Gary catches up with one of his employees as they make conversation on things regarding public safety and campus to the Yankees baseball game. This employee with him has the duty to mainly sit at the main desk. His name is Jeff Pers.

Even with all the unknown hardships this department and its employees have to face on a regular basis, Gary still remembers to stay happy, grounded, and put that smile on his face when he can.