{"id":805,"date":"2010-09-06T10:41:17","date_gmt":"2010-09-06T17:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/?p=805"},"modified":"2010-09-06T10:41:17","modified_gmt":"2010-09-06T17:41:17","slug":"get-to-know-jason-newton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/2010\/09\/06\/get-to-know-jason-newton\/","title":{"rendered":"Get to Know: Jason Newton"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>In November 2007 Jason Newton pulled three college girls from a burning car in Sherwood, Ore., after a drunk driver, going 65 mph down the wrong side of the street, crashed head-on into their vehicle. Arriving at the scene as the students were trapped in the car by flames, Newton yelled to them to get down, then struck the left rear window until it shattered. He broke out the glass pieces, told the closest woman to wrap her arms around him, and dragged her out.<\/p>\n

The flames grew so hot Newton and another officer could approach the car for only a few seconds at a time. The tires popped from the heat and the seams on Newton\u2019s trousers melted. Three of the George Fox University students were saved. It was later learned that the fourth student, whom the officers were unable to rescue, had been killed on impact.<\/p>\n

Newton, CC\u2019s new campus resource officer, sat through an hour-long interview for an Around the Block profile and never mentioned the incident \u2013 or the fact that he and another officer were named as national Hero Cops in 2008 for their actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not big into awards, but I have passion for what I do,\u201d he said later.<\/p>\n

Newton is a Colorado Springs police officer who is serving as a liaison between the college and the police department. He\u2019s been with the CSPD for three years, where he has focused on narcotic investigations; prior to that he served as a cop for four years in Oregon. A native of Wisconsin, he is a 2003 graduate of Western Oregon University, where he studied criminal justice, minored in psychology, and ran track.<\/p>\n

Newton will be patrolling CC and the neighborhood by foot, bike, and car. His goal is to build trust and relationships on the college campus and nearby neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an experimental position for the fall semester,\u201d says Ron Smith, director of campus safety, noting there is no cost to the college for the pilot program. Newton is the CSPD\u2019s officer dedicated to CC, and serves as a liaison between the college, the surrounding neighborhood, and the police department. \u201cThis provides supplemental campus patrol and more coverage in the neighborhoods. It\u2019s helping the city by reducing calls for service from this area,\u201d Smith says.<\/p>\n

Newton and John Lauer, director of residential life and housing, currently are visiting with representatives from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where a similar program is in place.\u00a0UW-Madison has a community police officer assigned to the campus, as well as a campus security staff. Newton and Lauer are learning how the relationships work between residential life, campus security, and the community police officer.\u00a0 UW-Madison has been fine-tuning their program for 12 years, and their experience should prove instructive for CC, Lauer says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis goes back to the community policing model,\u201d Newton says. \u201cI hope to serve as a resource for students, faculty, and staff, as well as the CC neighbors. I want to build trust and communication, and have people feel free to come to me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want them to be able to ask me about anything \u2013 if they have a problem at home, or questions about the community. I want to be a mentor and a friend,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Newton is no stranger to the CC: His fianc\u00e9e, Andrea Weatherford, is a 2002 Colorado College graduate who introduced him to CC hockey, and he’s been a dedicated fan ever since. (They plan to get married in mid-September.) \u00a0He\u2019s also familiar with the college \u2013 and its neighbors. During the last several years Student Life and Residential Life have asked the CSPD to send an officer meet with students and discuss such things as the importance of being good neighbors on- and off-campus, how to host safe parties, and personal safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever they needed a volunteer to talk at CC, I would jump on it. I\u2019d go whenever there was an opportunity to talk with the students,\u201d Newton says. The collaborative effort between CC and the local police department paid off: Last year a student who felt comfortable with Newton called him saying \u201cWe need help with this party \u2013 it\u2019s gotten out of control.\u201d Later, when an irate neighbor also called Newton, he was able to say, \u201cYes, we know about the party \u2013 the students have already called and asked for our assistance.\u201d The neighbor, says Newton, was very surprised.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen this job came up, I saw it as a tremendous opportunity. I\u2019m really excited about it and I want to put myself in the community. I want to be a part of as many things as I can,\u201d Newton says.<\/p>\n

Apparently that won\u2019t be a problem. Newton went to each of the first-year residence halls during orientation, introducing himself and getting to know the students. He happened to visit Slocum Hall when some students were baking banana bread, and was promptly invited to have some. He ended up spending about 30 minutes in the kitchenette there, surrounded by students. \u201cIt was great,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd the banana bread was great, too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In November 2007 Jason Newton pulled three college girls from a burning car in Sherwood, Ore., after a drunk driver, going 65 mph down the wrong side of the street, crashed head-on into their vehicle. Arriving at the scene as the students were trapped in the car by flames, Newton yelled to them to get … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Get to Know: Jason Newton”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":154,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[79,222],"class_list":["post-805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-profile","tag-campus-resource-officer","tag-jason-newton","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/154"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}