University Police Spokesman Paul Dillon may be in the market for his own publicist.
The retired police major is scheduled to make his network television debut tomorrow on America’s Most Wanted, offering safety tips to viewers in a three-and-a-half minute segment about college students living in off-campus housing.
“There seems to be a perception that frequently students living off campus feel they are living in a bubble,” said Renée Rosenfeld, the segment’s producer. “We just want to educate them that they are part of the real world.”
Dillon serves as the show’s expert on keeping students safe off-campus, Rosenfeld said, drawing on experience from his years of service on the university’s police force. She said the university’s proximity to Bethesda, where America’s Most Wanted is based, and the large student body living off-campus made the school an ideal choice for the show.
Dillon agrees. From common, minor crimes like disorderly conduct and underage drinking to violent crimes like robbery and assault, University Police encounter a wide range of incidents on the streets of College Park.
“It’s a good fit for the University of Maryland because not only do we have a lot of students that just live off-campus,” Dillon said, “but we police those areas as well.”
Rosenfeld said Dillon’s segment dramatizes a real crime involving one of the show’s hotline workers in off-campus housing near Towson University. The hotline worker entered her apartment, but felt unsafe and left immediately. Rosenfeld said police believe a man may have been hiding in her closet.
The show depicts the incident as if the woman had not fled her apartment, but was attacked by the intruder. Dillon offers safety tips so students can avoid falling victim in similar scenarios, Rosenfeld said.
“We set it up with a tease before the commercial, which is some sort of dire, tragic outcome and then we come back after the commercial and we go through whatever the scenario is again with the expert who gives us information,” Rosenfeld said.
Dillon pushed alcohol consumption as a primary contributor to off-campus crime during his interview, but due to time constraints, much of that information was cut out, Rosenfeld said.
“The biggest point that he made that I’m not really dealing with is how often students are intoxicated and they don’t have full control over their faculties, so they don’t really connect with what’s going on,” she said.
In an interview, Dillon said drunk students are prime targets for criminals because they tend to make poor decisions. Alcohol can also fuel confrontation, he said.
Dillon said students living in off-campus housing overlook common safety measures like locking house and car doors and not walking alone.
“Students living off campus need to be aware of their surroundings,” Dillon said.
Extra footage from Dillon’s America’s Most Wanted interview will also appear in a video on the show’s website, Rosenfeld said.
While Dillon has appeared on local news stations, tomorrow’s 9 p.m. show on Fox marks his first stint on national television. But Dillon isn’t caught up in the fame. In fact, he has only plans to watch the show if he has time.
“I’ll at least TiVo it, but I’ll probably watch it,” Dillon said.
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