Twenty years ago this month, Anna Stephenson began working patrol for University Police. In 1981 she went through the police academy on campus with about 15 other officers and has enjoyed patrolling ever since.

Stephenson, who was raised in Columbus and graduated from OSU, decided she wanted to get into law enforcement when she was working her way through college. So she decided to answer an ad for a security job. She worked in retail security for five years and her boss encouraged her become an officer so she wouldn’t have to depend on anyone and could make the same amount of money as a man.

She proved that she was as good as the men in her profession when she received the Officer of the Year Award last year. She is only the second woman to win the award which is given by her peers and lieutenants.

Stephenson said she enjoys working on a college campus because of the youthfulness here.

“I think that is what makes policing on a campus community really fun, you constantly have a turnover and there are always new people coming in,” she said.

She said that her favorite part of the job is meeting new people.

“I like being able to do things that leave people with a favorable outlook on the police department. Everybody loves the fire department, but not everybody loves the police department right now,” she said.

One of the things that Stephenson does not like about her field is that a few people have tarnished their reputation.

“This is probably not the best time to be a police officer because of the things that are on the news,” she said. “It is hard for me to see all of the good things that police officers do and then a few bad ones bring a lot of disrespect to the whole profession.”

Stephenson has done security work for women’s basketball and football games. She’s also done crime prevention programs for international students.

The international studies office offers an orientation program for new students and Stephenson goes there to talk about cultural differences and crime prevention techniques. Afterward, Stephenson and Deborah Schipper, coordinator of the Rape Education Prevention Program, offer a session especially for women that demonstrates rape prevention techniques as well as assertiveness training.

Stephenson typically works a shift from 3 to 11 p.m. Monday through Friday, but she said there has been an increase in overtime lately due to the riots. She worked a few of the riot shifts and said they were mostly parties that got out of control. “I don’t think they are the wisest choices of the students getting involved in those situations, but the largest population of students is not like that. You get a large group of kids together and things are going to happen.”

Stephenson said she thinks the Ohio State campus is very safe. “I think students have to be responsible and take active participation in their own safety. You can’t come here and think nothing is going to happen to you.”

She said that if students don’t do things here that they wouldn’t be comfortable doing at home, they should be safe.

About her 20 years of patrolling, Stephenson said, “A lot of things have changed over my 20 years of policing but there are still the same kinds of parties. Alcohol has been here for 20 years and it will be around for another 20 years.”