A group of sociology and crime and delinquency majors from Emporia State are trying to create a criminal justice recognized student organization.

The group began to form last semester, according Ashley Velazquez, senior crime and delinquency major.

Currently, they have submitted a petition and their constitution for review, Velazquez said. These documents will be reviewed by Associated Student Government, which has the power to deny or approve groups as RSOs.

“We are just waiting on a date to go in a talk about the next steps,” Velazquez said.

They’re also in the process of recruiting more members and trying to involve people in other majors. “We, so far, have about 12 members, but we are working on getting more members by switching up meeting times and trying to involve other majors,” Velazquez said.

There are already a few events in the works for the club, including facility tours and a fingerprinting booth.

“Some of the events that we have planned are a finger print booth, a family day with ‘avoid hitting the lasers’ and maybe even our own version of (an) escape room,” Velazquez said. “We are planning for members to hopefully be able to tour the KBI facility and possibly the Hutchinson police academy.”

KBI is the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, a state agency tasked with providing criminal justice, laboratory and investigative services to criminal justice agencies, according to Kansas.gov.

The Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center is located in Hutchinson, Kansas and is the central law enforcement training facility for the state, according to kletc.org.

Velazquez also said they hope to bring guest speakers to ESU. “We are planning on being involved in all department events,” Velazquez said. “We are also hopping to take part in setting up speakers for the college.”