Marion Summers

how old are you

40

1. What did you major in, well attending Columbia state university?

Law enforcement

zone patrolled from 1977-1985

Lincoln Zone

Describe town in 70s

beautiful and peaceful

town in 80s

• Because of the economic recession, the neighborhood definitely changed. About 20,000 employees got laid off and the area became one of the highest in crime rate in the country.

goals once promoted to captain

My job as Captain was to supervise the police officers who patrolled the lincoln zone, and come up with some strategies to reduce the criminal activity.

strategies to achieve captain goals?

I created a community crime watch, recruited some informants and conducted some outreach programs for teenagers.

what did you notice by 1987

By 1987 I noticed that most of the crime in the area was all being committed by people primarily under the age of 21

How did you react to the crime being committed by mostly juveniles?

Well theoretically all we had to do was change the behavior of this group and the overall criminal activity would be reduced. So to increase my knowledge about juvenile crime prevention I started going to school at Columbia State again to get my masters in criminal justice. After receiving my degree I met with the old principal of the high school, Principal Sanders to try and create a model school, but nothing came of it, and we ended up arresting about 38 kids that year

What did you notice about drug use when principal taylor took over in 1992?

Drug related problems were pretty much non-existent when Principal Taylor took over.

What is a model school?

I would say a model school is a school that has school spirit, a majority of students graduating, and overall a school that raises kids to become model citizens after high school. Lincoln High School is a great example.

Why is lincoln a model school

Well thanks to Dr. Taylor about 85% of the senior class graduated, the school was clean, and school spirit increased greatly. Everyone was educated, safe, and happy.

Safety of lincoln by 1993?

one of safest schools in the country thanks to Dr. Taylor

When you created the school/police crime prevention program with Dr. Taylor what did that involve?

• The idea behind the program was to combine school and police resources to create a school zone for safety. 

Could you give us an example of what that would look like?

Well, once a month police officers would conduct an assembly at the school on crime prevention

In 1994 you gave a lecture about how students could assist in fighting crime. Do you mind telling us how they could do so?

Well similar to what I told the students in my lecture, there’s a lot of ways kids can help, like the general rule, see something, you can always report anything to the school safety officers, and it's important that the kids always listen to them. Dr. Taylor also implemented a hotline if the students feel more comfortable reporting that way

How would you describe the school security officers?

They are extremely impressive and highly trained

How did the students respond to your lecture?

• They took it very well and very seriously, and even gave me a standing ovation at the end of it

Overall, how successful was the police department’s crime-prevention educational series at Lincoln.

It was very successful, I even received a 5,000$ salary bonus

Finally, Captain Summers, how would you rate Lincoln High School in terms of safety out of 10?

I would say lincoln High school is an 8 in terms of safety