Sacramento State community service officers say their job notonly pays the bills but also enables them to gain life experiencesin their desired profession &- the police force.

Community service officers patrol campus and look out forsuspicious activity working closely with university police officersto prevent crime.

“We are the eyes and ears of the police, we prevent thingsby reporting them to the police,” business finance senior andcommunity service officer Asish Chandra said.

Criminal justice junior Jeff Worrall said while the unusualhours can make school difficult it is something he cannot getenough of as it has such great rewards.

“It’s fun and addicting no matter how tired you areyou still want to do it. I wish I could come in more often,”Worrall said.

Chandra said he never thought that being a community serviceofficer would be so important to him and that despite taking 18units he wants to work as much as he can.

By alerting police officers of potential crimes and seeing howquickly they respond, Chandra said it makes him feel that communityservice officers play a large role in campus safety.

“It’s great how the officers respond to us, eventhough we’re just community service officers, to them we arereally helpful and are an essential part of the department,”Chandra said.

Chandra said his job enables him to see first hand what it islike to be a police officer and prepares him for when he joins theNapa Police Academy in January.

“I’m learning a lot of stuff just by working here,when I apply to be a police cadet they will look and say hey healready knows half the stuff like police codes and how to respondto the radio,” Chandra said.

Learning good work habits, ethics and knowing how to be patientare other qualities Chandra said he has gained through being acommunity service officer.

Worrall hopes to graduate and go to an academy and theneventually work with the FBI or pursue criminal law.

“It’s a lot of hands on stuff at my internship Ididn’t do a lot of work in the field, this is a step forwardin our careers,” Worrall said.

Worrall said he often does double shifts where he will come inat 5 p.m. until 3 a.m. and will proceed to go to class at 10 a.m.the same day.

“At first my parents were kind of iffy, they didn’tlike me being out so late but I think it has boosted more selfconfidence in me because sometimes you are by yourself so you haveto stand up for yourself,” Worrall said.

Around 16-community service officers are on campus and fiveofficers will patrol on a typical shift unless a special event istaking place. They spend a lot of time patrolling the parking lotsto prevent burglaries and also monitor activity in the dorms.

“We kind of hover around and stay in close proximity andkeep an eye on the (dorms),” Chandra said. “It’sso hard at night time. People are hard to catch because wearen’t really allowed to go inside the dorms unless theresident advisers call us.”

Both students said Bill Scholtz, the community servicecoordinator, understands their educational needs and will schedulethem around school, as he believes it is their top priority.

“Bill is the greatest guy, he will work around us like itis nothing,” Chandra said.