University Times

Pitt Police Officer Zach Zimmerman had just begun his training in January when the call came in: A young man had overdosed on heroin, right next to police headquarters on Forbes Avenue.

Zimmerman rushed out on the heels of his training officer, who immediately administered the emergency overdose treatment Narcan by nasal spray.

“When we arrived there, he didn’t look too good,” Zimmerman said of the victim. “That was a real eye opener.”

Although the young man survived – paramedics administered a second Narcan dose by injection before carting him to the hospital – the incident left Zimmerman with “mixed feelings,” he said. “I felt good about assisting on that, but it kind of made me realize the unfortunate situation people are dealing with, with addictions.”

Now six months on the job, Pitt’s newest police officer says the work “does affect you. Everybody will tell you, when you’re out there on your shift, you have to put up a little bit of an emotional shield. But afterwards I’ll think about it. The human side is still there. To be honest, I wouldn’t want to get rid of it. I still want to be a human being dealing with humans. I don’t want to get to the point where, going out on a call, it’s just a number.”

Zimmerman says he’s always wanted to work in law enforcement – ever since, as a child, he watched his father on the job as a Scott Township police officer.

“The older I got, I realized it was a job that was never the same on any day,” he said. “And if there was a critical situation, I knew I wanted to be involved in it. I can have positive results on people and see it right away.”

Zimmerman actually began his Pitt career before joining the Pitt police force, starting as a security guard in March 2010. He took Pitt classes to turn his Community College of Allegheny County associate’s degree in criminology into an administration of justice degree from Pitt’s College of General Studies in 2016. Even before graduation, he had applied for Pitt’s police department to put him through the county police academy.

“It was a pretty easy choice” to start his policing career at Pitt, he said. “It gives you a chance to work with everything on campus and everything a typical municipality has to deal with. Especially as a new officer, there are a lot of opportunities.”

While Pitt police have jurisdiction around all University-owned property, they also have a mutual aid agreement with City of Pittsburgh police that sends campus cops throughout Oakland to help on calls. Zimmerman is never certain where he’ll start his day until he shows up for his shift: on foot or in a car, on a particular part of campus or in a UPMC hospital, which Pitt officers also help to patrol.

“Every day has been a learning experience for me,” he said – and it’s a learning experience for Pitt students observing officers in action, too, he added: “You’re dealing with people from so many different backgrounds. You have students coming here from different countries and they have their first experience with an American city.

“My interactions with students have been positive,” he said. “I know that not everybody looks favorably on the police, but I think as new officers coming in at this point, everybody has an obligation to be a positive change in law enforcement. That comes down to every interaction” – including those times when he must hand out a ticket, or even make an arrest, Zimmerman said.

He knows that his fellow Pitt police share his perspective, Zimmerman added: “Every officer I’ve dealt with so far has a similar trait – they are truly passionate about coming out every day to help people. This has always been a dream for me and I feel like every day when I come to work it is making a difference.”

When he does his duty, “I still want that person to come away thinking, ‘Maybe I got a citation, but the officer still treated me like a human being, with respect.’ I look back at what my dad did. He always had a respect for people. I’m trying to do the same – be a positive impact on the community every time I go out.”

Contact:
Marty Levine, martyl@pitt.edu, 412-758-4859