WHO’s WHO @VCU: Meet Rebecca Shaw

Rebecca Shaw, the crime prevention specialist for the Monroe Park Campus, has been a member of VCU’s community since 1975. Her days here, however, did not begin as a police officer but as a college student.

Shaw remembers the feeling of leaving her family and starting her life at college for the first time.

“I had been very protected as an Air Force kid. Even when you’re out of the country or in other areas of the United States, you are taken care of by your Air Force family,” she said. “I remember the kind of scary feeling of waving goodbye to my parents in front of Rhoads Hall, and that was basically the beginning of an adventure that’s gotten better and better.”

She lived in Rhoads, Johnson and Cabaniss halls for two years as a college student. Shaw said she will never forget the fond memories she had with friends while living on campus.

“It was a good place to be and a good time doing everything together,” Shaw said. “We would travel in groups of eight or 10 because there was a sense that you couldn’t leave anyone alone. There was no escort service back then, so we did everything together.”

Like many college students, Shaw soon ran out of money and searched for a job. She landed a job as a security guard for the dorms, which led her to the life of law enforcement.

“I had no thought of ever becoming a police officer,” Shaw said. “There are no cops in my family, and I was studying Latin American history.”

Shaw became a security guard in May 1979, and by August she was security supervisor. By the end of September of the following year, she was a police officer – a career that has spanned for more than 26 years.

During the course of her time as a member of VCU’s police force, Shaw said the community has made an impact on her.

“It’s been a family to me,” she said. “It’s taught me to be a good citizen.”

Megan Haynes, VCU police residence hall security employee, said Shaw trained her to become a security guard.

“She is willing to help out anyone, as a friend or as an officer,” Haynes said. “She portrays that VCU police officers are people, too. She is very passionate about her job, and she has a very friendly personality.”

Haynes said Shaw answered her concerns when she planned to move off campus.

“I talked to her when I was moving off campus to see what the area I was moving into was like,” Haynes said. “She gave lots of statistics of crime on the neighborhood and even showed the best route from campus to my house in Carver.”

Megan Edwards, a first-year student from Harrisonburg, said she heard Shaw speak about safety within the first few weeks of the school year.

“She knew so much about VCU, and it’s nice to know that she truly cares about us,” Edwards said. “You really get the sense that she believes in helping others and keeping the community safe.”

As an officer, Shaw said she enjoys getting to know people and seeing the benefits of her work. Of the numerous people she has encountered on the job, one particular individual stands out – a man whom she said was an alcoholic.

“I had arrested him many, many times for being drunk in public. He had a temper, disorderly conduct,” she said. “He was just on the streets for years. He disappeared in 1986, and I couldn’t find him. The rumor was he passed away on the street, but no one really knew where he was.”

Ten years after the man’s disappearance, Shaw’s colleague informed her of a man who insisted on talking to her. The man on the streets, it turned out, had not passed away after all.

“He had left town to Pennsylvania. He had done something wrong, and they put him jail. He went into rehabilitation, and he just wanted to call me to tell me that he was OK, that he had found Jesus,” Shaw recalled. “He had a life in Pennsylvania and was off alcohol. He called to tell me he appreciated me, (and) that he had a changed life.”

In less than two years, Shaw will retire and move to Northern Virginia to be closer with her family.

Shaw still remembers a question she found scribbled on a wall in Johnson Hall more than 25 years ago: “Is there life after VCU?”

“It’s bizarre to think about leaving,” she said. “I will be venturing out into the world for the first time and have to work on the question if there is life after VCU.”