Campus Safety Voices

To combat the nationwide police shortage, Eric James, chief of police for the University of Nevada, Reno Police Department-Northern Command and a 2023 Campus Safety Director of the Year finalist, secured funding to add at least one community service officer position to each campus (2:11).

These student officers almost exclusively spend their time on foot patrol and handle cold calls for service, leaving more time for peace officers to handle priority calls for service. Adding CSO jobs also creates a pipeline for hiring peace officers.

In this interview, James discusses this initiative, as well as:

• Benefits garnered from teaching a CrossFit class at the University Fitness Center (5:06)
• The process of acquiring a facility dog and the many ways she has helped the campus community (8:11)

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A fall 2019 survey of approximately 167,000 students at two- or four-year colleges found 39% had experienced food insecurity in the last 30 days, according to an annual survey conducted by Temple University’s Hope Center for College, Community and Justice.

On college campuses throughout the country, there are various departments and organizations working diligently to improve food access. At the University of Rhode Island, the police department is one of them.

In this interview, Michael Jagoda, URI's Director of Public Safety and Chief of Police, shares how hosting nearly two dozen food-focused community outreach events has helped campus police establish open lines of communication with students while also addressing the hardships of food insecurity.

Jagoda also discusses: 

• Outreach programs the department leads within the greater community (9:45)
• Unexpected benefits from the community outreach events (19:20)
• How his response to the Sandy Hook tragedy as a member of the Connecticut State Police has influenced his dedication to thorough active shooter preparedness (15:52)

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For years now, school districts have debated if school resource officers (SROs) make K-12 campuses safer or more dangerous, with some making the difficult decision to remove their police officers. The Lynwood (California) Unified School District (USD) was one such district, doing away with its SRO program before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Doing so meant Lynwood USD needed to figure out other ways to protect its schools. The first step was to create a safety taskforce that was comprised of school board members, principals, parents, directors of student services, IT, other community members, city officials, and local law enforcement. (Next year, the task force will expand to include students.)

“In this committee, we’re addressing the incidents that we see in or around the school sites,” Garcia said. “We discuss the incidents and then bring to the table what we think will be beneficial for the whole district.”

This process resulted in Lynwood USD identifying several technologies and programs that would proactively address its school safety and security challenges without the involvement of SROs. An intercom access control system, anonymous reporting system, weapons detection that uses artificial intelligence, student internet monitoring, and visitor management were all installed. Garcia and his team also implemented active shooter training at all sites, collaborated with the city of Lynwood to implement Safe School Zones, and more.

The result of these improvements was a 70% decline in incidents at Lynwood USD. 

This and many other reasons are why Garcia has been named one of this year’s K-12 Campus Safety Director of the Year finalists.

Below are the questions and interview time stamps so you can watch/listen to the specific details of Garcia’s achievements and lessons learned: 

• Why Lynwood USD needed a new intercom access control system, anonymous reporting system, weapons detection technology, student internet monitoring system, and visitor management system and the problems these technologies addressed. 1:58 
• How Garcia was able to convince other district stakeholders (the school board, community, etc.) that these upgrades were needed. 5:45 
• How Garcia’s department and district paid for the upgrades. 7:48 
• The results of Lynwood USD’s implementation/installation of these systems. 8:49 
• Advice Garcia gives to other districts looking to upgrade their security and safety. 10:21 

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In 2022, Howard University received eight bomb threats based on racial motivations. As chief of police and executive director of the school’s Department of Public Safety, Marcus Lyles was tasked with responding to these threats as well as addressing concerns and fears expressed by the Howard community.

In this interview, Lyles shares how the threats impacted Howard students and staff, as well as how his team responded to the threats and offered reassurance to the campus community regarding their safety (2:20).

Lyles also discusses:

• How his team kept parents informed of the university's response to the bomb threats (9:24)
• Recommendations for schools that may experience similar threats in the future (12:10)

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After three people were tragically killed and five others were wounded in a February shooting at Michigan State University, conversations started swirling about how to best protect an open campus. While there are leading practices for improving safety on an open campus, each campus has its own unique challenges and therefore its own unique solutions.

Vanguard University, located in Costa Mesa, Calif., is an example of an open campus with security solutions tailored to its specific environment. 

In this interview, Kenton Ferrin, Vanguard's director of campus safety and a 2023 Campus Safety Director of the Year finalist, speaks to ways his campus has made security changes after evaluating its top risks, as well as:

• How his team developed safe rooms throughout campus where students or employees can quickly secure themselves during an emergency (5:55)
• The advantage of hiring retired police officers and tips for campuses considering doing so (11:50)
• Unique ways the campus safety team has been able to connect with the student population (15:25)

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Outdoor public address systems are critical components of any school’s emergency notification system. Emergency messages must reach everyone on campus, including those students, faculty, and staff members who are outside on the football field, baseball diamond, picnic areas, playgrounds, and other outdoor areas. Unfortunately, PA speakers often aren’t installed in remote outdoor locations on campus. If they are installed, the announcements might not be loud enough or intelligible. The same issues often happen indoors.

Such was the challenge at the UMS-Wright Preparatory School located in Mobile, Alabama. UMS-Wright Director of Campus Safety Garrett Humphrey and his team updated the PA system to not only address the old system’s coverage issues but to also make the school’s teachers less reliant on their cell phones for push notifications. He and his team went through a lengthy and thorough process to upgrade UMS-Wright’s PA system, including conducting an inventory and testing what they already had, determining the exact areas that had coverage problems. 

Here are the timestamps of what was specifically covered in the interview:

• The specific challenges UMS-Wright experienced with its PA system: 2:20 
• How Humphrey addressed this issue; what was installed; how he determined what was needed; and the overall process: 5:32 
• How the solution that was chosen achieved cost savings: 9:05 
• Humphrey’s advice to other school safety and security professionals about public address systems and notifying students, faculty, and staff who are outdoors during an emergency: 11:25 
• What Humphrey would do differently if he had to do it all over again: 13:58

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Partnerships have long proven successful in improving safety within a community. Historically, these partnerships have been between various first responder groups. As the social divide within our country continues to widen, partnerships between first responders and social workers have proven extremely successful.

This rings true for the University of Maryland Baltimore Police Department (UMBPD) since it began a partnership with the university’s School of Social Work (UMSSW) to help the Baltimore community at large.

In this interview, UMBPD Chief Thomas Leone shares how the partnership works (2:16) and its impressive outcomes for the community (6:13).

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At the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and UT Health Science Center, all incidents are shared with and monitored by the police department. Threats are also shared with other campus leaders to ensure everyone -- at all times -- has a clear picture of the campus threat landscape.

In this interview, Chief William Adcox shares why information sharing is essential to mitigating healthcare violence and why his police department does not have an arrest model (12:47).

Adcox also shares how switching to a Combined Protection Model (1:46) and creating a Shared Purpose Council (6:06) resulted in improved performance and outcomes for both the organizations he serves and the surrounding community.

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Brown County’s Teen Heartsaver Initiative has provided First Aid training and certification to nearly 2,000 high school students, campus employees, and area residents.

The program, which was developed and launched by Brown County Kansas Sheriff John Merchant, has saved many lives. One student who received the training performed the Heimlich maneuver on a choking child she was babysitting. A bus driver who was waiting in line at McDonald’s revived a person who went into cardiac arrest. Another student who was sitting at a restaurant revived a patron who experienced a heart attack. Brown County’s program has many more success stories… too many to mention.

Below are the questions posed to Sheriff Merchant and interview time stamps so you can watch/listen to the specific details of Brown County’s initiative:
1. What exactly is the Teen Lifesaver Initiative? 1:49
2. Why did you think your school district and community needed it? Did anything prompt you to introduce this initiative? 3:00
3. What have been the results of your Teen Lifesaver Initiative so far? 5:40
4. How did you go about implementing this initiative? Any advice to other districts or law enforcement agencies wanting to adopt something similar? What works? What doesn't? 6:59

This presentation is brought to you by CampusSafetyMagazine.com (https://www.campussafetymagazine.com/)
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Budget limitations are some of the biggest challenges campuses face when it comes to making security improvements. Whether it’s a school, college, hospital, or church, just to name a few, most safety and security leaders are expected to do a lot with little when it comes to protecting their facilities.

In fiscal year 2022-2023, Cesar Gracia, director of public safety and chief of police at East Tennessee State University and a 2023 Campus Safety Director of the Year finalist, was able to nearly double the campus police department’s budget. How? By changing the department from a traditional police organization to one whose primary focus is community policing.

In this interview, Gracia discusses various initiatives that led to an increased budget, as well as:

• How he adapted to policing a college campus after training officers at Walters State Regional Training Academy for 12 years (1:51)
• How he informed officers about the switch to community policing and how he approached situations where officers seemed resistant to change (7:42)
• Recommendations for other leaders looking to focus more on community policing (11:01)

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