Public Safety: Who’s Who

Public safety officers Connor Duncan and Erin Carillo outside of Niebuhr Hall

There’s a pretty solid chance the first staff member you met on campus who wasn’t part of admissions or first-year advising was a public safety officer. Even as a student, you’ll see the faces of Elmhurst University’s campus security keeping an eye on you and your friends, so you stay out of trouble during your undergraduate journey.

Public safety consists of over a dozen officers and administrative staff members. The following is a brief introduction to some of the most notable figures from the department.

John Escalante – Executive Director of Public Safety
Escalante may not necessarily be your point person for everything on campus, but he’s an important figure for the overall operations of EU’s Public Safety. Managing the entire department, Escalante frequently advises student event plans and security, can help secure transportation for an event, or answer and direct the vast majority of inquiries regarding public safety or events on campus. If you need a query elevated past calling the main phone number, and you’re not sure who to reach out to, he’s likely somebody worth copying on your email.

Bill Trulock – Campus Locksmith
Occasionally, campus doors are locked, broken, or you lose your key. While it’s not often somebody calls for Bill Trulock directly, he’s a regular sight on campus. Trulock is the campus’s security specialist, or locksmith. Trulock has many duties as a security specialist to include key control, maintaining the access card/reader system, upkeeping the security cameras, and other duties such as installing or repairing door hardware.

Aiyana Ross – Dispatcher
Beginning as a part-time dispatcher in January 2018, Aiyana Ross is one of the faces students interact with most often when calling public safety. In her position as a dispatcher, her primary role is to help answer phone calls, issue Jaypasses, assist with parking permits, monitor alarms and DuComm (DuPage County 911 radio network), and assist in communication between other departments as needed.

Currently, Ross also works part-time as a Funeral Director, handling administrative and service matters for an area funeral home in addition to her position at EU.

Erin Carillo & Connor Duncan
Almost every student involved on campus has had an interaction with either Officer Erin Carillo or Connor Duncan. These two Public Safety officers help tend to student requests, attend and manage EU events, and even frequently visit student-sponsored activities. They’re well known on campus for being trusted and friendly with students; many students will actively go up to either of them and strike up a conversation, just for fun.

Carillo was initially hired in a part-time hybrid position between driving the Bluejay Shuttle and working as a Public Safety Officer. After connecting with numerous students, she was hired as a full-time Public Safety Officer. Carillo notes her favorite part of working for Public Safety is connecting with students and making them feel comfortable.

Duncan is both a valuable member of Public Safety and enrolled as a student at EU, working toward a degree in Psychology. He mentions working and experiencing different events on campus and interacting with fellow students as one of his favorite parts of the role.