In addition to patrolling campus, officers work as dispatchers and drivers for SafeRide. He said sometimes the supervising sergeant will work either the east or west patrol route if only one outside officer is available. Federal law requires Drake to keep statistics about crime on campus. Those results are published yearly as pamphlets for the students, and they are also accessible on Drake's Web page. In 1997, Drake reported four forcible sex offenses, one vehicle theft and two drug-abuse arrests, all of which were tabulated by the Des Moines Police Department.
Students seem to have mixed thoughts regarding campus security officers.
Happ said officers appear to be seeking drunk students to reprimand rather than guarding students' safety. Sunwar said she wanted more information about their role in campus safety. Perhaps a better understood aspect of Drake security is SafeRide, which runs from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. SafeRide's route travels the campus perimeter. The van runs in 20-minute cycles beginning at Olmsted Center and stopping at Greek Street and several other spots on campus. Regularly the van is driven by campus security officers, though sometimes the department gets volunteers.