WEST HARTFORD, CT (August 30, 2011) -- College and university administrators must take into account a number of variables in determining the appropriate staffing levels for their campus public safety function, according to a white paper released by the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators, Inc. (IACLEA).
The report is entitled, "Establishing Appropriate Staffing Levels for Campus Public Safety Departments,' by Sue Woolfenden, QPM, Ph.D., and Bill Stevenson, Ph.D., of Strategic Direction, a consulting firm based in the United Kingdom that specializes in police resource allocation. The report was supported by a grant to IACLEA from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office).
The white paper explores how campus public safety department staffing levels are determined, what agencies are able to achieve with the number of staff available to them, and what challenges they face in this respect. It also examines whether there is the potential to develop a means of determining appropriate staffing levels for campus public safety. Most importantly to the safety of the students, staff and faculty at colleges and universities, this report looks at staffing needs as they relate to the execution or maintenance of a community oriented policing mission--a major issue in today's tight economic times where many police chiefs and public safety directors are expressing concern that their resources are already being stretched to the limit.
"This white paper is a valuable resource to colleges and universities in examining the considerations surrounding the establishment of adequate staffing levels for their campus public safety departments," said IACLEA President Paul V. Verrecchia, who is the Chief of Police at the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina. "IACLEA urges senior higher education administrators and campus public safety leaders to read this white paper. We welcome your comments and feedback," he said.
Research for the report consisted of a review of literature and previous studies related to campus public safety staffing, administration of an online survey to identify relevant issues and current practices related to staffing, and a total of four focus group sessions held at American University in Washington D.C. in 2009. Eight participants attended the focus groups from a cross-section of colleges and universities, including urban and rural, public and private, and four-year and two-year institutions. The participants were campus chiefs of police or public safety directors as well as some senior higher education administrators.
The characteristics of a college or university affect campus public safety staffing levels. These include student population, the location and physical security requirements of the institution, the number of buildings on and around the campus, availability of student housing, campus size, and the institutions expectations for their campus public safety department. An analysis of the survey data suggested "that total institution staffing levels, number of faculty members, total student enrollment, and the number of on-campus buildings were more strongly correlated with [campus public safety department] staffing levels than were other variables, such as campus size."
According to the report, colleges and universities structure their campus public safety function in a variety of ways. Some institutions (26 percent of survey respondents) employ all sworn officers with full arrest powers, some (36 percent) have all non-sworn officers, while others (37 percent) have a mix of sworn and non-sworn officers. About half of survey respondents reported that they arm their officers.
The study found that agencies with larger staffing levels were more likely to engage in community oriented policing activities, which involve strategies to support the use of partnerships and problem-solving techniques to proactively address the conditions that give rise to crime. The survey found that 33 percent of campus public safety departments with fewer than 10 staff members will undertake no community policing activities. Once staffing levels rise above 30 staff members, activities increase considerably, with more than 50 percent of departments undertaking between seven and 10 community policing activities.
The most frequent community policing activities were: walk-home escorts, safety awareness programs, crime prevention programs, sexual assault prevention, geographic patrol areas, and first-year orientation programs on campus safety.
The employment of community policing entails a shift to the long-term assignment of officers to specific geographic areas. "The successful implementation of such specific deployments in a campus setting relies heavily on the ability of the department to make officers available at appropriate times to meet the needs of their community--appropriate being defined by the institution's community rather than the department," the report found.
"Those [departments] who employed geographic patrol areas were also likely to devote more of their officers' time to other community policing activities; 31 percent were able to devote over one quarter of their officers' time compared to 12 percent of those who did not employ geographic patrol areas."
The report examined current approaches to determining staffing for campus public safety departments. One of the major findings was that the majority of campus public safety departments have little or no control over their staffing levels. In 60 percent of the cases, staffing levels were determined solely (24.8 percent) or mainly (35.2 percent) by budget considerations. For community colleges and public universities, the rate is slightly higher at 65 percent and for private universities it is slightly lower at 53 percent.
"When budget is not the major determinant [of staffing levels], the main drivers in determining staffing levels are workload analysis, benchmarking with similar institutions, and self-determined formulae based on student population," the report stated.
The full report has been posted on the COPS Office website: http://cops.usdoj.gov/RIC/ResourceDetail.aspx?RID=608
About the COPS Office The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services is the component of the U.S. Department of Justice responsible for advancing the practice of community policing by the nation's state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies through information and grant resources. The community policing philosophy promotes organizational strategies that support the systematic use of partnerships and problem-solving techniques to proactively address the immediate conditions that give rise to public safety issues such as crime, social disorder, and fear of crime. In its simplest form, community policing is about building relationships and solving problems. The COPS Office awards grants to state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies to hire and train community policing professionals, acquire and deploy cutting-edge crime fighting technologies, and develop and test innovative policing strategies. The COPS Office funding also provides training and technical assistance to community members and local government leaders and all levels of law enforcement.
About IACLEA IACLEA is an association that advances campus public safety for its more than 1,200 educational institution members and 2,000 individual members by providing educational resources, advocacy, and professional development services. IACLEA is led by a Board of Directors and managed by professional staff in Washington D.C. and West Hartford, CT.
