Maddy Kovarik went on a ride along before dawn Tuesday, Oct. 6 and learned about what it takes to work the night shift.

It is before dawn on a cold, rainy weekday morning, and most students are either busy sleeping or hitting the snooze button on their alarm clocks. But for Joe Pedevilla and Al Schutt, two officers on the Public Safety night shift, the day began hours ago.

Schutt has been with Creighton’s Public Safety for over 22 years, and Pedevilla joined the force about 14 months ago. Both men work the night shift, which spans 12 hours between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. As members of the night shift staff, they help provide many essential services to Creighton’s students.

Public Safety officers constantly patrol Creighton’s campus to ensure security, keeping a close eye on residence halls and parking lots. They spend hours patrolling streets and providing escort services to students who are concerned for their safety as they walk back to their residence halls late at night.

While having officers available 24 hours a day is a necessity at Creighton, Pedevilla and Schutt admit that working such strange hours can be hard at times. While both Schutt and Pedevilla have adapted their lives to working this shift, it still manages to mess up their sleep cycles from time to time.

“My least favorite part of the job is the time switch between my days on duty and my days off,” Schutt said. “It’s hard to go from working at night to being awake during the day.”

Also, since the services provided by Public Safety are so essential to maintaining student safety, Public Safety officers are often expected to work in unpleasant circumstances.

“My least favorite part of the job is dealing with the bad weather,” Pedevilla said. “We are essential staff and are on the job 24/7. When the weather is nasty, we are still out here.”

In fact, it is often during poor weather when Public Safety officers have more duties to perform, such as jump starting cars or digging them out of the snow. “We have a very experienced staff and can handle things very professionally,” Pedevilla said.

Some students say, however, that it is very reassuring to have Public Safety officers always available on campus. Sophomore Nursing students Audri Talmadge and Brittney Wildrson are glad Public Safety officers were able to respond to their call last January, when they had a frightening experience driving back to campus along Burt Street. The two girls, along with three other friends, were returning from Starbucks around midnight and could not find parking anywhere close to their residence hall. The group parked in the Burt Street parking lot, but when they tried to cross the street they noticed a suspicious figure standing next to his car across the street.

“It was like something out of a horror movie,” Talmadge said. “This guy just jumped out of his car and stared at us. We all got really scared.” Luckily, one of the girls came up with the idea to call Public Safety and ask for an escort back to Gallagher. Several minutes later, two officers appeared and drove the girls back to campus.

Even though their typical work day differs greatly from most people, Schutt and Pedevilla both enjoy the work they do at Public Safety. Both have found ways to work the night shift’s unusual hours into their lives, and they actually prefer some aspects of it over the day shift.

“My favorite part is the different interaction with students. In the day they are busy with papers and homework, but at night they are a little more social and chat a little bit more,” says Schutt. He began working the night shift because it was the open position at the time he began working at Public Safety, but over the years it became a normal part of his schedule and he decided to stay. The same is true for Pedevilla, who worked the night shift in another law enforcement job. He decided to work the night shift because it was what he was used to, and he stayed because it worked with his family life. He also enjoys the people he works with on the night shift.

“My favorite part of the job is the guys I work with. We all get along very well; I enjoy the camaraderie,” Pedevilla said.