LSUPD Officer Jeff Lemoine remembers a time when the campus stayed alive and jumping until 4 or 5 a.m.
On this particular Monday night, however, the scene is eerily quiet — Lemoine’s car drives alone when he starts his shift at 11:32 p.m. with only a few other vehicles driving through and the occasional student walking by.
Despite the quiet surroundings, Lemoine said the night shift provides more excitement than during the day.
“We usually get a lot of drunks or traffic stops at night, and you get to make your own calls,” Lemoine says. “But Mondays are slow. I’ll be lucky to get three calls.”
Lemoine, an officer for a little more than two years, says during his shift he drives around campus scouting areas for suspicious activity.
11:32 p.m. — After pulling out of the LSUPD parking lot to begin his shift, Lemoine says the station wants officers to learn areas of campus to be prepared for a possible chase.
11:37 p.m. — Lemoine calls over his radio about two people walking toward houses near the Natatorium. He then tells another officer to call Facility Services about lights out at North Stadium Drive.
11:40 p.m. — As he drives through the Kirby Smith parking lot, Lemoine shines an overhead light under the parked cars. He gets on the radio to ask about a recent car theft.
“Have we had a 62A or a 62C in Kirby Lot lately?” Lemoine asks over the radio.
“It could be an older blue car,” an officer says.
“It’s not here. I just saw the pile of glass,” Lemoine says.
Lemoine says the campus rarely has violent crimes, and instances with weapons are few and far between. Other than the occasional fights, he says a usual night consists of cruising around campus and checking for open doors or dark areas.
11:54 p.m. — Lemoine drives past Carrie Lynn Yoder’s house, now vacant and dark with a plywood door facing the street.
      “You can’t get much closer and not be on campus,” Lemoine says. “From the [CEBA] parking lot you can see her door in the daylight.”
Lemoine says since the serial killings, he takes his job more seriously.
“It’s definitely more vigilant,” Lemoine says. “As with any new officer, you take your job seriously. Parents send their kids off to college and ask us to keep an eye out for them.”
12:06 a.m. — Lemoine drives past two girls walking by East Campus Apartments, then makes a turn onto Campus Lake Road toward Herget Hall. A group of students are congregating on the porch and everyone turns to watch the car drive by.
12:30 a.m. — Lemoine drives toward River Road to scope out the area. Nothing out of the ordinary.
12:42 a.m. — He gets a radio call about a dark truck with its light on that has been sitting in the Thomas Boyd parking lot for half an hour. Lemoine speeds off to get to the scene. Finally, some action.
By the time Lemoine drives up, two other officers have responded to the call and the truck is surrounded. Lemoine shines the light into the vehicle, only to find a couple sitting inside. He steps out of the car to check it out and comes back a minute later.
“The guy says he’s just dropping her off at her car … for thirty minutes,” Lemoine says.
12:55 a.m. — After the excitement, Lemoine pulls off to clock speeds with the radar. He says patrolling around campus should always be a priority, even after the initial shock of the serial killings dies down.
He says everyone is working together to find the serial killer, and even officers have been under suspicion.
“There’s been a theory about cops that’s been considered,” he says. “We thought they were going to DNA swab everyone, but apparently they’ve gotten information that has led them away from that.”
1:40 a.m. — An alarm in the Tiger Den Suites goes off, and Lemoine goes over to check it out. Another false alarm, something he says happens often.
On a typical night, Lemoine may only drive around and do routine checks, or bust car thefts and vandalism. No matter the intensity of his shift, he says students feel comforted just to know the officers are patrolling at all hours, especially after dark.
“Just in the past year, we’ve gotten more calls to walk people to their cars,” Lemoine says.
He says the reality and proximity of Yoder’s death has scared students away from being on campus at night.
“The fact that it happened in our backyard, people are able to say he’s targeting LSU students,” Lemoine says. “There was some question as to whether he was coming onto campus, but now there’s no doubt.”