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1. Who is eligible to participate?

Students of all walks of life. Though this program was named after its original audience, it has expanded past just the greek community at Kansas State. Sports teams, academic societies, large study groups and any other gathering of 20 or more college-aged community members are encouraged to participate. Whether you have questions regarding alcohol, safety, or the police in general, this program is for you.

Officers that participate in Operation Greek tend to be younger in age, but with enough knowledge and experience to adequately answer questions and join in on conversations that may arise. These officers are meant to facilitate conversation and answer questions posed to them on the fly and are discouraged from creating a boring hour-long presentation for your group to sit through.

2. How did it start?

In 2011, three Patrol officers came together during a portion of their training and began to research the history and effects of Fake Patty's Day on Manhattan and Riley County. This was similar to the projects completed by all newer officers at the department and is a requirement of their employment (the neighborhood portfolio exercise). Many officers will select a neighborhood and report on its crime and ways that the department may be able to affect that crime, but these three officers chose to work together on a project that was bigger than one specific area of their jurisdiction and instead picked something that had a large effect on the community as a whole. Officer Droge, Officer Wilkey, and Officer Doehling looked at crime statistics, researched festivals and events in other cities and states, as well as met with the public to get their take on FPD. Throughout the process of interviewing college-age community members, the three found that there was a communication breakdown between the department and that demographic. This was something they felt they needed to change and on their own, without command of the department, decided to meet with fraternities and sororities in their "off-duty" time. This initiative on the part of our officers created Operation Greek and continues to improve relationships between the police department and students at Kansas State. It has since become a permanent and active program at the Riley County Police Department.