Tom King is a busy man.

In one day, the State College Police Chief had attended two meetings, met with broadcast journalism students for an interview and was set to attend a town hall meeting at the Nittany Lion Inn on drug and alcohol abuse in the community that evening.

The rest of the week included staff meetings, a technology meeting and an appearance at the College Township Council meeting to deliver a report about the township's security. September and October provide a particularly busy schedule for King, partly because of the students returning to the area, but also because he must begin writing out his budget for the following year.

He also must present it not only to the State College Borough Council, but also to College and Harris Townships, which use State College police services.

On Oct. 21, King attended College Township's Council meeting to present his budget and answer the questions of council members concerning it. Pen in hand, he quickly took notes about questions he did not immediately know so that he could answer them later.

King's busy schedule can often cause tricky scheduling, but King said he and his wife, Kelley, have rarely missed any events that their children, Bradley, 17, and Kayla, 14, have been involved with.

His week generally includes 60 hours of work and then five to 10 hours of volunteer activities with the Centre County United Way and the Centre County Office of Mental Health/Mental Retardation. "The 5 percent of the time I'm not there, they very well know that there's a reason," he said.

With the combination of Penn State events such as fall football games and State College events such as the annual Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, King oversees a 62-officer force to control the influx of people who make annual trips to Penn State.

The problems that have occurred in the past few years during these events have also caused King to re-evaluate training techniques. "Prior to the riots, we never had to focus much or spend much on riot equipment," he said. "I had to rethink our training and how we deal with riots."

The riots also brought about the issue of public cameras in Beaver Canyon, an idea for which King has taken much public criticism for, but an idea that he did not originally generate.

A committee composed of local business owners, residents and university representatives met to discuss ways to reduce the likelihood of riots in the future. The meetings produced more than 50 ideas, among them was the idea for public cameras, King said.

The idea was taken as part of a 10-point plan to State College Borough Council, which adopted the plan and later voted to install cameras along Beaver Avenue at Hiester Street, Locust Lane and McAllister Street. "It was my request that we try everything else before we try cameras," he said. "I didn't think we should employ that first."

The Borough Council has since asked for an evaluation of the public cameras so it can discuss continued funding for the project in this month's budget meetings.

King said the department is currently compiling the crime data as part of its report to Borough Council. Despite the criticism, King said he believes that the cameras have been somewhat helpful in deterring potential criminals.

"I would have liked them to be a little more of a deterrent," he added later.

King, who has been with the State College Police Department since 1981 following his graduation from Indiana University of Pennsylvania with a degree in criminology, has held nearly every job available with the department.

His career includes time as a patrol officer, training officer, a detective, a narcotics investigator, a corporal and a sergeant, before he was chosen over four other applicants to replace retiring police chief Elwood Williams in 1993.

"I've been at it 12 years and it's still a challenge," he said. "I have no idea what the next person's call is going to be about. I have no idea what the next crisis is going to be about."

The role of handling crises has also provided King with some of his more emotional moments on the job. In particular, the murder of William and Georgeann Opdenhoff in fall 2002 was one of the most difficult moments in King's career. William Opdenhoff, a former superintendent of the State College Area School District, was a frequent visitor to King's office and the two became good friends.

"He and I sat in this office a lot," King said. "We worked very closely together when he was superintendent. That was definitely a very difficult couple of days."

King added that being put into such difficult situations does have a large impact on him, but that it makes him appreciate his family even more.

"You go home at night and it causes you to think ... and appreciate," he said.