Metro East Sun

Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville Police Chief Kevin Schmoll prepared for busier days this week as the university reopened following months with the students being off campus because of COVID-19.

"Our main mission, as always, is to keep the campus safe," Schmoll said in a news story published in The Telegraph. "When this all went down in March, everybody went home, but we were still here and kept every campus staffed with officers. We have one officer 24-7 at the Dental School in Alton and two officers 24-7 in East St. Louis."

What did change was the attire, procedures and other details now necessary in the ongoing pandemic, Schmoll said.

"What changed is wearing masks, whether it’s N95, KN95 or cloth," he said. "We had to scramble to get PPE (personal protective equipment), but the faculty and students from our engineering department manufactured some face shields for us. Madison County Emergency Management got us a lot of PPE, including more gloves, face shields and masks, so we’re well covered on that now."

Schmoll, a Red Bud native who has been known to hand out hot chocolate on campus and in 2018 was honored by the NAACP for his minority hiring practices, has been the university's police chief since October 2013. Schmoll first joined SIUE's police department in 1994 and served as patrolman, detective for investigations, sergeant and lieutenant in charge of the patrol division.

"The buildings are now open, so hopefully we won't have to be unlocking doors anymore," Schmoll said in the news story. "We’re going to see more people coming back throughout the summer, so I think our activity will pick up slightly."