6. Type of Service
Some states also 
do not permit private institutions to have police departments. Therefore, security officers or contract municipal/county officers may be the only options for these institutions.
If your campus does offer a law enforcement service, administrators need to look at what is expected of the officers. Are they expected to provide 100 percent fully for the safety of students, faculty, staff and visitors? If not, does your campus contract with someone who does and/or is that responsibility outlined in law, code or some other regulation? If it is expected of someone else, do they know it and take that responsibility formally by assigning officers to your institution?
Do they have a good, healthy working relationship with your public safety officers? If your officers are expected to provide fully for everyone’s safety, do they have the tools they need to protect themselves as well as the public? “Understand the type of incidents [your] officers are responding to and what the desired level of response to these incidents is,” Chief Porter advises. “Unarmed officers should not be responding to dangerous incidents. Make a decision, supported by facts and reasoning, if local law enforcement should be the officers responding to such incidents or a well-trained and armed campus police officer,” he explains.
7. Liability Insurance
Some insurance companies now charge extra for non POST-certified officers who carry weapons. The increase in cost is so great that even some municipal departments that previously used non-POST certified officers as reserves no longer arm them. Most of these departments also restrict their duties to things like traffic
control or require them to team up with armed regular police officers.
8. Community Policing
Community policing is a fast-growing strategy among many police departments. Generally speaking, a police officer taking a stake in the community can better partner with citizens and community groups to reduce crime and intervene early on by correcting the negative stereotypes certain groups may have of law enforcement. Municipal or outside law enforcement personnel called in to a campus when needed may not always have the same vested interest in the institution’s community as a campus police officer would. A campus police officer may also be more likely to use discretion with minor violations to work towards preemptively reducing major crime.
Chief Porter emphasizes that community policing should be an important priority focus to allow the officers to gain the trust and mutual respect of the students, faculty and staff. “The officers need to be embedded in the community to [demonstrate] accountability,” he says. He also says there should be a clear line for oversight of the police department. “Transparency is the one important [characteristic] that a police department has to have, and the community has to demand it.”
To that end, he says, Brown University posts all of its traffic stop data on its Web site. Chief Porter believes arming a campus police department that has a good relationship with its community would not change the relationship the officers have with it, and he would know. The chief has been involved directly with arming the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth officers as well as Brown’s and has served as an expert to many other campuses across the nation looking at the issue. “Above all, the department has to be there to serve the community in a very just way,” he says.
