When chief of police Mike Efford walked through the door, he wasn't wearing a police uniform, opting instead for casual clothes. Efford is a fairly big man with a firm hand shake and a gray goatee.

Efford said that he has 35 years of police experience, the last five of which as been with Butte College. Efford was also the chief of police for the city of Chico. He said that he would like to get more students involved in keeping the campus a safe place for students to learn. Toward that end, the campus police department has just hired seven new volunteer students.

Efford and the Butte College police department do crime prevention, including going to class rooms to speak with students. The crime prevention that is offered to students is all educational, you can check it out at the web site at www.butte.edu.com. Efford said that the police department on campus is a regular police department, just not campus security. There are several highly trained officers on campus seven days a week, 24 hours a day. To work for the Butte College police department, officers have to go through a special six-month training program called Police Officer Standard Training (POST). Candidates have to go through the Police Academy. At this program officers learn how to handle all sorts of crimes and violations.

The most serious crimes at Butte College are assaults, thefts, vehicle vandalization, threats towards students and threats towards Butte College in general. Efford said we haven't had a bomb threat in a couple years (knock on wood).

See the police blotter for the latest crimes on campus.Efford's advice: Watch your vehicles and your actions on campus, so that you won't have to pay a visit to the folks down at the cop block.