The patrol function is the strongest and most visible asset of the Department. The principal duties of an officer while on patrol are to prevent violations of the law, enforce rules of the College, check for suspicious persons, and give aid assistance, and information to persons in the campus community as circumstances require.
Police Officers patrol the campus by vehicle, bike and on foot twenty-four hours per day, seven days per week, all three hundred and sixty-five days per year. While on foot patrol, attention is primarily devoted to the buildings and the activities around and in them. On vehicle patrol, this attention is redirected to the parking areas and campus rental properties on the perimeter of the campus and any activities around or in them. The bike patrol focuses it's attention to the campus, parking areas, and surrounding community. The officer on foot patrol is utilized to maintain the schedules of the buildings, to secure areas at specified times, and to unlock areas and provide access at specified times. The officer on foot patrol is also responsible for checking these buildings for fire hazards, suspicious persons, unsecured offices, and unnecessary lighting. The vehicle patrol officer will also perform these duties for the buildings on the fringes the campus.
Officers of the Department of Public Safety enforce Georgia Traffic Laws while on patrol. Violations of state laws are cited with Uniform Traffic Citations which are processed by Decatur Municipal Court and State Court, DeKalb County.
The Department of Public Safety shares the responsibility for the patrol of the residential areas around Agnes Scott owned homes with the city of Decatur Police Department (as a result of this Department's certification as a Police Department and the subsequent passage of state legislation in April 1984 extending jurisdictional boundaries of this department five-hundred (500) yards in any direction). All police officers are certified by the Georgia Peace Officers Standards and Training Council (P.O.S.T.) and have Deputy Sheriff status through the Dekalb County Sheriff's Department. This gives our officers jurisdiction in DeKalb County as well as statewide with a warrant.