Miles Long wants students to get to know him.
The ASU Police department’s new podcast, “The Beat Down with Miles Long,” provides a new look at common crimes committed on campus with host Miles Long, a fictional character.
Released every Monday, the podcast, which is set up like a radio program, discusses the 18 most popular crimes on campus over an 18-week period.
ASU Crime Prevention Officer Brian Kiefling and other officers developed the program over the summer. Kiefling said they saw it as a great way to get information out to students.
“We took 18 crimes that happened most often on campus or crimes that we get questions about and wrote a script for each one of those 18 crimes,” Kiefling said.
The podcasts have three different segments. The host, character Miles Long, talks to special guests, other radio personalities and answers questions from callers, just as a radio station talk-show host would.
Kiefling said some of the scripts are based off real-life cases ASU Police have dealt with.
One of the examples used was a call by a woman who wanted to know if she could ask a man to leave her residence.
“She didn’t know she could (ask him to leave) and was afraid to do it by herself,” Kiefling said.
Employees at the office play most of the characters on the show, but Kiefling said students are welcome to get involved as well.
“Anybody that wants to come down and read a part, be my guest,” he said.
The first four shows are complete and available on iTunes U. The issues that have already been discussed include bike theft, disorderly conduct, fake IDs and alcohol.
The program is sponsored by ASU Greek Life, which paid for advertisements around campus.
The strong relationship between the ASU Police department and ASU Greek Life is part of what made this sponsorship possible, Interfraternity Council Coordinator Matt Hunt said.
“[The IFC] agreed that they would find money in their budget for the signs with the ‘Go Greek’ information on them,” he said.
This is not Kiefling’s first experience with radio broadcasting. When he was 19 years old he was deployed with the U.S. Army to Honduras where he worked with the Armed Forces Network.
“I had my own radio show down there … called the ‘Non-stop Rock Shop Radio,’” he said.
Kiefling said he has taken his experiences from that radio show and uses them with the new ASU Police podcasts.
“It was so strict,” he said. “There were so many things that you can’t say over the air if you’re going through military network.”
Other topics that will be discussed this year in the “Beat Down” include vehicle burglary, trespassing, criminal damage and computer crime.
“This is a pretty non-violent area so most of the crimes are property crimes,” Kiefling said.
The podcasts are available on iTunes U, the ASU Police Facebook page and through the official ASU Police Web site at asu.edu/police.
“Its all about education,” Kiefling said.
Reach the reporter at nathan.meacham@asu.edu.3
