Please see an editor’s note regarding the reporting of this story.

Dressed in almost all black with earpiece microphones, Student Patrol officers serve as watchmen for the University Police and report suspicious activity at UW-Eau Claire.

Sgt. Chris Kirchman said the main reason Student Patrol program exists is to be able to have an “extra set of eyes and ears” to assist the campus police.

Kirchman said the program was even more covert when he was a student.

“When I was a student patrolling, there weren’t uniforms, there wasn’t anything identifying us; it was more of a concept of ‘let’s catch them,’” Kirchman said.

Kirchman said changing trends in the way police respond to crime caused the department to rethink the undercover nature of the program.

“We learned that keeping the patrol visible is sometimes enough of a deterrent to keep students from committing a crime in the first place,” Kirchman said.

However, a poll, shown at the bottom of the story, of 450 students on campus show nearly 80 percent of respondents were not aware of the Student Patrol.

Student Nick Jones said he only became aware of the program after he saw two Student Patrol workers hiding in the woods.

“I didn’t expect anybody on campus to be able to hide and spy on people,” Jones said.

Nate Cooper, candidate for Chancellor’s Council, said the way the program functions might be a cause for concern.

“Having students spy on other students doesn’t seem ethical,” Cooper said.

Cooper said he feels that the student-based patrol should be more visible.

“The fact that I wasn’t even aware of the program is kind of alarming,” Cooper said.

The poll also asked students to indicate how they felt about the campus police. More than twice as many respondents said they felt the police are more concerned with punishment.

Survey given to students: