Campus Safety & Police

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Welcome to Paris Junior College. We appreciate your choice of PJC as your institution of higher education. Although your primary focus will be your academic endeavors, other student-life activities will be a significant part of your total educational experience. Paris Junior College and its Campus Police Office want all these experiences to be meaningful and safe. Paris Junior College has programs that support security measures to provide a safe environment for the students, faculty, staff, and visitors.

For police, fire and ambulance emergencies, call the following numbers:

  • On Campus: Extension 1399 / 9-903-782-0399 / or 9-911
  • Off Campus: 911

The Campus Police Office is responsible for the police service for the college. The CPO reports to the Paris Junior College president. The officers are commissioned Texas police officers and graduates of the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standard and Education training academy with full arrest power. There is an officer on duty seven days a week. All reported criminal incidents and vehicle accidents on the campus are investigated by the CPO.

The Campus Police Office has a close working relationship with the City of Paris Police Department, Lamar County Sheriff's Department, and the Texas Department of Public Safety (State Police). The CPO conducts foot and vehicular patrol of the campus. The CPO enforces all regulations, rules and laws, both of the college and the state of Texas. Officers also assist other law enforcement agencies when requested. The CPO assists other agencies with warrants and subpoenas that are required to be served on campus.

It is essential that students assume responsibility for their own personal safety, the safety of others, and the security of personal property by taking simple, common-sense precautions. Safety is everybody's business. Students, staff and faculty are partners with the college in creating an atmosphere that is safe and encourages learning.

Officers in the PJC Department of Public Safety include:

We also recommend that students, faculty and staff download and familiarize themselves with following reports. If you would like a hard copy of any of the information below, please contact Chief Chris Mayfield or call 903.782.0244.

Other downloadable files include:

Making a False Alarm or Report

Texas law requires Paris Junior College to notify every incoming student of the penalty for making a false alarm or report involving an institution of higher education.

Under Texas Penal Code § 42.06, a person commits an offense if the person knowingly initiates, communicates, or circulates a report of a present, past, or future bombing, fire, offense, or other emergency that the person knows is false or baseless, and that would ordinarily:

  • cause action by an official or volunteer agency organized to deal with emergencies;
  • place a person in fear of imminent serious bodily injury; or
  • prevent or interrupt the occupation of a building, room, place of assembly, place to which the public has access, or a vehicle or other mode of conveyance.

When the false report involves an emergency at a public or private institution of higher education, the offense is a state jail felony, punishable by 180 days to two years in a state jail and a fine of up to $10,000. In other circumstances the offense is a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $4,000.

This includes pulling a fire alarm when there is no fire, calling in a bomb threat, and reporting an active shooter, a fire, or another emergency the person knows is not happening — whether the report is made in person, by phone, by text, by email, or on social media.

A student who makes a false alarm or report is also subject to discipline under the PJC Student Code of Conduct, up to and including suspension or expulsion, separate from any criminal charge.

This law applies to reports a person knows are false. It does not apply to a report made in good faith that turns out to be mistaken. If something concerns you, report it — an honest report is never an offense under this section.