SAN MARCOS ----- When Officer Brian Herritt walks into the Palomar College bookstore, he sees things a little differently than most.

To a retailer, the attractive display of cell phones near the entrance might entice customers to buy, but to the 3-year veteran of the Palomar Police Department they're an invitation to shoplifters.

As a promoter of community policing, which turns the patrolman and the patrolled into partners, Herritt points out not only how the placement of the cell phone display makes the store vulnerable to theft, but also how the store could continue to sustain sales if the phones were moved elsewhere.

With a troubled economy and the rising value of textbooks ---- a full-time student's new books can run $350 to $400 each semester ----- the campus bookstore has become a key focus of the new patrol style.

The bookstore's special efforts to deter shoplifting, and an "adopt-a-building" program which puts the bookstore and other key campus venues under the aegis of an individual officer, has taken a big bite out of crime.

Since 2000, said store manager Walter Della Santina, losses from shoplifting, internal theft, bad checks and stolen credit cards have dropped from 3.7 percent of sales to 0.04 percent, a far better record than the 1.5 to 1.7 percent average in the college bookstore industry. Lots of the shoplifting, he said, is done by nonstudents, many of them drug addicts, who turn quick money by selling an expensive text at a discount to people enrolling at the college. The thieves also sell them back to the store for cash as used books.

"It's a partnership," Della Santina said of his new relationship with the police. "It's another set of eyes."

Adds officer Gene LaRue, who served with the Oceanside Police Department for about a year when he retired as a first sergeant after 22 years with the U.S. Marine Corps, "In all aspects, the people on campus are just as involved in (community policing) as we are."

All over the campus, the college police force is encouraging students, staff and faculty to add their own eyes to an effort to keep Palomar safe. Freed from the constant radio calls that beckon sheriff's deputies and city police officers from one incident to another, the Palomar police have carved out time to get to know their public and show that they can be helpful in ways other than taking down crime reports. They plan to make their program ready for export.

Community policing at Palomar is getting a push from James Stoney, a 28-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department who became permanent head of the campus police this spring after nearly a year as interim chief.

"The idea is once we get this up and running completely," the chief said, "we'd like to develop it as model for other community colleges. It's an extension of the neighborhood watch that the municipalities use. We're really going after it full-bore."

Among the plans being developed are the blue phone project, which would place emergency telephones all over the campus with a direct line to the police, and self-defense classes which would teach women how to protect themselves from an attacker.

Officers, some of whom have served in city departments, say the campus-watch approach makes for more interesting work and involves them, too, in the campus-wide mission of putting every employee to work as an educator. Said Anthony Cruz, a retired U.S. Marine Corps major who joined the Palomar force after more than a year with the Oceanside Police Department, "On a daily basis, I find myself getting more intimately involved. ... It's necessary to have a lot of unique talents. You're dealing with a lot of young people and they need the benefit of your experience."

At the bookstore, manager Della Santina said the new sense of partnership has led the store staff to not hesitate about notifying the police because the call might amount to nothing. He said the store did not want to jeopardize police coverage by being seen to be crying wolf.

"I'd rather you call me and have it be nothing than not call because you think I might be upset that you called," said Herritt, a garrulous graduate of the police academy in Eureka, who himself has adopted the student services building where his wife, Linda, works as an admissions aide. "Don't worry about it. Let us worry about it. Don't worry about whether to call, just call," he said.

Besides, Herritt said, the calls get better and better because the staff gets the police training in spotting trouble. Beware, for example, of the person wearing long, loose coats during warm weather, for large inside pockets may be concealed. And watch for those who stand still at a book shelf and keep moving their head and eyes around to see who's looking. Herritt's tip for the store staff: Say hello to everyone who walks in and make sure those who appear suspicious know you know they are there.

And if the lesson should be lost on anyone at the store, the police will be back with a video, a lecture and a PowerPoint presentation on theft prevention when the new semester ---- and book-buying season ---- begin again in August.