In response to the fact that the majority of calls the University of Texas at Austin Police Department receive involve some sort of mental health element, the department decided to form a four-officer team specially trained to respond to mental health calls.
Gabe Gates, former assistant vice president within the department of public safety at the University of Virginia has joined Margolis Healy's consulting practice.
Michigan State University has chosen Marlon Lynch to serve as the university’s next chief of police. Lynch, an MSU alum who has worked in law enforcement for nearly 25 years, will also hold the title of vice president for public safety.
Denison University announces David Rose will join the university as Director of Campus Safety. Rose is a retired captain of The Ohio State University police division and brings more than 30 years of campus safety experience to his position.
The town of Oxford, Connecticut and its public schools will receive a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, Community Oriented Policing Services to create a security operations center (SOC) with three personnel monitoring the district's four school campuses.
Portland State University will be unable to meet its fall goal of transitioning to unarmed sworn officers on campus due to a number of issues, however, the University says it remains committed to this eventual goal.
The University of Florida Police Department is installing license plate recognition technology on campus and will partner with the Gainesville Police Department and Alachua County Sheriff’s Office that is currently using the technology to share information for aiding in investigations, responding to incidents, etc.
Many higher education institutions have seen a decline in on-campus residency, dining, and parking along with deferred enrollment which has resulted in reduced revenue. At the same time, they have had to decrease class sizes, transform non-academic spaces into classrooms, and improve ventilation systems. All of which come with mounting expenses.
Two new public safety committees were created this month by University of Utah Chief Safety Officer Marlon Lynch and appointed by U President Ruth Watkins. The Public Safety Advisory Committee and the Independent Review Committee are comprised of students, faculty, and staff from across the institution and are designed to ensure a broad representation of constituents are included in public safety decision-making.