Ala. Rep. urges review of campus security

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WALA) - Following an officer involved death on the University of South Alabama’s Campus, an Alabama State Representative is asking Governor Robert Bentley to prompt a review of all campus security on public universities in Alabama.

Gil Collar was shot and killed when police say he charged an officer outside of the campus police department. Rep. Barry Mask watched Collar grow up. He was active in the Elmore County wrestling community in which Collar was a standout.

“Sort of close to me and it’s been very difficult for the community. It’s been very difficult for everybody,” said Mask.

This incident prompted Mask to look at campus security state wide.

“Sometimes it takes a tragic incident to make us review what we are doing. We assume that all these protocols and training that they have that equipment, they may not and unfortunately sometimes it takes a situation like this to make sure that hopefully this doesn’t happen again,” said Mask.

Thursday, Mask delivered a letter to Bentley about his thoughts.

“At a minimum we ought to be asking all of our public universities to review their protocols with campus security to see what type of training is in place. What type of equipment they have particularly any non lethal alternatives and just reviewing protocols,” said Mask.

Mask said his intent is not to take a stab at law enforcement. He said he nor the Collar family foster negative feelings toward the officer. Now they want to see something good come from it.

“It’s very difficult for Gil Collar’s family. I know it’s been difficult for the officer’s family and this is not a bash law enforcement thing at all. We’re just hoping to make some sense out of it and hope that something good can come out of it,” said Mask.

Mask said he is not speculating on whether the university’s policies were correct, just asking we take a look.

“I don’t know, I don’t know all the facts. I don’t pretend to but I think at the end of the day we ought to step back and let’s review what were doing on these campuses and just see. Can we do better? Is there other alternatives and other training perhaps we can provide?” said Mask.

In addition to looking at campus security, Mask said this incident also forces us to look at ourselves.