Special Event Management for Campus Law Enforcement Agencies
According to the US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, there are over 861 campus law enforcement agencies, utilizing both sworn and non-sworn officers, serving various colleges and universities across the U.S.
In the last several decades, this number has continued to grow. When campus policing began, their role was to “deter crime, and to improve student-police relations”. Although the role of campus policing has evolved and grown since that time, deterring crime and maintaining student-police relations continue to be pillars of campus policing.
Campus law enforcement agencies face a variety of unique issues in comparison to their municipal counterparts. While colleges and universities“contribute to the lifeblood of a city” representing a significant portion of the city population, they often come from different communities across the country and the world. According to Arizona State University Chief of Police, Michael Thompson, differing perspectives from different communities can bring other“concerns and issues that [students have] had with police in their home communities to the university community”.
In recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic as well as continued civil unrest following the death of George Floyd, have contributed as additional points of conflict on campuses and within their surrounding communities. Campus law enforcement are also not immune to the ‘defund the police’ movement. Recently, Harvard University closed a police substation“because students felt it created an intimidating environment”. Accountability with policing is also expected within campus agencies and changes in best practices affect campus law enforcement just as it affects municipal agencies across the country.
While all law enforcement agencies participate in some type of community policing, it likely looks different on a campus versus within a municipality agency. The Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) in their Critical Issues in Policing Series document Municipal and Campus Police: Strategies for Working Together During Turbulent Times encourages campus agencies to establish mutual aid agreements to better coordinate response to critical incidents and manage special events. Having relationships established in advance, particularly among agency leadership, can improve information sharing and allow for a more efficient response to when critical incidents and special events occur.
Other recommendations include:
· Sharing information
· Conducting joint training
· Sharing resources
· Pre-planning for critical incidents, including active shooter incidents, and special events
Large scale events, such as sporting events, are common occurrences on college and university campuses. These events are personnel intensive and seldom are campus police departments able to fully staff these events on their own. They often require assistance from surrounding municipal, county and state agencies, usually through mutual aid agreements, to assist and provide additional staff to effectively manage these special events.
For example, a large SEC university with a current sworn staff of 75 and hosts over 92,000 home football game attendees, will leverage their relationships with local law enforcement agencies to boost their staffing by up to 300 additional personnel.
These events, if not properly managed, can have an impact on surrounding law enforcement agencies and their communities and therefore it is critical to utilize existing resources efficiently.
The PowerDetails platform can assist campus law enforcement by providing tools to manage their special events more efficiently, and currently serves over 30 campus law enforcement agencies. Our platform allows agencies to post special duty and overtime positions efficiently and fairly. The ability to create groups for various law enforcement, fire and EMS partners, allows campus agencies to maintain greater accountability amongst all staff working a particular special event. With the ability to enforce agency policies and rules regarding the maximum number of hours allowed as well as rest periods between shifts, PowerDetails encourages equitable distribution of additional shifts while reducing officer fatigue.
To learn more about how PowerDetails can help you address accountability issues surrounding extra duty employment, you can contact us to learn more.
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