NIU’s department of Public Safety has seen a lot of new employees recently.

Twelve new police officers have been hired in the last year, including seven in the month of January alone.

Over the summer, there were at least three new officers hired and at least two resigned.

University Police Lt. Matthew Kiederlen said the reason behind the new influx of officers is a shift of policies.

“Under the old process, it would take about six months to hire an individual. Now we streamlined it down to six weeks,” he said. He blames the old process on the lack of a police chief for a year.

Kiederlen said prior to UP Chief Donald Grady taking over, the department was short 10 officers.

Kiederlen credited Grady for the new hiring practice, as well as a new philosophy for dealing with crime on campus.

“The new philosophy is geared more toward prevention rather than arresting people,” Kiederlen said.

He added that the goal of the new philosophy is two-fold. The police want to make a presence not only on the streets, but also in the residence halls in hopes of deterring any potential crime.

They also want to get to know the students in hopes of becoming friends with them and becoming a part of the community.

Most of the officers have embraced the new way of policing. Officer John Campbell, who was among those who started in January, works the west campus portion of the new prevention-oriented program.

“We’re trying to re-implement the ways of policing that are more community orientated policing,” Campbell said.

He, along with a number of other new officers, works the residence hall beat.

“We want to become friends with students,” officer Cynthia Glodowski said. Campbell and Glodowski both said students are giving a lot of feedback.

“A solid 99 percent of them are on-board,” Kiederlen said of his fellow officers.

Kiederlen said those with a problem had objected to the change itself and not the policy.

Grady said some have quit because they were unwilling to adopt this shift in policy. However, he said those who left would have only deterred from what he believes is best for the department.