{"id":144052,"date":"2022-12-05T16:17:41","date_gmt":"2022-12-05T23:17:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=144052"},"modified":"2022-12-05T16:17:42","modified_gmt":"2022-12-05T23:17:42","slug":"meet-a-mountain-lion-michael-schaller-investigator-for-the-uccs-police-department","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=144052","title":{"rendered":"Meet a Mountain Lion: Michael Schaller, investigator for the UCCS Police Department"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Michael Schaller is a criminal investigator for the UCCS Police Department.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

“Meet a Mountain Lion” is a series of stories introducing members of the UCCS community to campus. Meet Michael Schaller, criminal investigator for the UCCS Police Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Tell us about your background, and what brought you to UCCS.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I came to UCCS in 2014 after 22 years with the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office. These are the only full-time jobs I have held, and on May 1st I celebrated 30 years of serving this region as a law enforcement officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. What do you do at UCCS?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I am the criminal investigator for the UCCS Police Department. I provide support for patrol officers on cases that require additional follow-up and expertise and assume the lead on more complex and major cases. I am also a member of the UCCS CARE Team, and work closely with OIE, Dean of Students, Events Services and Housing on issues that impact campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. What do you love about UCCS?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The people. While the views are near the top (of course!) working with and around great people make coming to work an enjoyable experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. What are you working on right now?       <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I am always carrying a moderate case load of property crimes and crimes against people. I am also working with OIE to create a new Victims Rights form that will better represent all campus options for victims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. What energizes you at your job?      <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Interviewing people. Victims, witnesses, suspects, you name it. Cases are built on conversations as much as physical evidence, so sitting down with someone to paint a picture of what happened can be fascinating. I am in the process of becoming a certified FETI (Forensic Experiential Trauma Interview) interviewer, which will allow me to really enhance my skills when speaking with people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. What’s an accomplishment you’re proud of?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Establishing a good relationship between patrol and investigations. I provide them with investigative strategies, networking contacts, and assistance to allow them the opportunity to learn new things on cases they may not always get the opportunity to investigate. I also established a new case referral process, so officers know when I assume a case investigation and how it progresses. This allows for a more efficient investigative process where things are not either missed or unnecessarily duplicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. What’s a goal you have for the future?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To see our department grow enough to allow for the creation of a full-time investigations division. This would take some of the case load off of our patrol officers and allow the time and effort needed on more involved cases.<\/p>\n\n\n

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8. What do you do with your free time?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My wife and I like to travel, ride motorcycles, and attend sporting events, concerts, and the theater. We NEVER miss Iron Maiden when they come through!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9. What’s the best compliment you’ve ever received?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After arresting a suspect and finishing up the booking at the jail he said, “thank you.” He clarified not thank you for the arrest, but for how I treated him during the entire encounter. That was a long time ago, and it still resonates with me to this day. I make it a point to try my best for everyone I deal with to feel the same way he did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Do you know a Mountain Lion that UCCS should meet? We want to hear all about them!<\/a> Invite them to share their story, and we’ll tell it to the UCCS community.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meet Michael Schaller, criminal investigator for the UCCS Police Department, as part of the “Meet a Mountain Lion” series. (More)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":144058,"comment_status":"closed","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_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,9],"tags":[43,443,332],"class_list":["post-144052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-personnel","tag-department-of-public-safety","tag-meet-a-mountain-lion","tag-more-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Mike-Schaller-Featured.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1mBpJ-Btq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=144052"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":144057,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144052\/revisions\/144057"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/144058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=144052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=144052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=144052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}