Keeping Cornell Safe

The Cornell University Police play a crucial role in maintaining a safe and secure environment on the University’s Ithaca campus. However, over the past 28 years, the number of sworn officers staffed to execute this mission has not enlarged to meet the changing needs of the growing population, expanding infrastructure and increased demands of the University.

Since 1986, student enrollment has grown about 20 percent. In order to keep up with this enlarged student population, millions of gross square feet of new campus buildings were constructed. On top of the physical changes occurring on campus that the CUP remains accountable for, the scope of CUP’s responsibilities has also increased dramatically. For instance, homeland security concerns, domestic terrorism, pandemic disease response planning and computer crime were of little or no concern in the 1980s while today they are some of the department’s highest priorities. One of the most telling indicators of the increased reliance on the CUP is that calls for their service have increased from 48,000 in 1986, to over 108,000 per year today, according to Director of CUP Curtis Ostrander. Sun Podcast: A podcast is available for this column. Click here [1] to listen to or to download it.

If these statistics alone are not enough to convince you that the CUP has been understaffed, in 2003, Harold Craft, vice president for administration and chief financial officer, contracted with the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators to conduct an external review of the CUP. One significant finding stated that the CUP “… is well below the [staffing] ratio for private institutions.” Nationwide, the ratio for private institutions is 4.5 officers per 1,000 students. Cornell has an enrollment of about 19,000 students and 44 sworn officers, for a ratio under 2.5 officers per 1,000 students.

Thanks to a collaborative effort between Ostrander and Stephen Golding, executive vice president for finance and administration, CUP will see its first officer increase in almost 30 years. According to Ostrander, CUP plans on hiring 10 new officers over the next two years, providing an increase of two additional officers per shift. Because of this increase in staffing, a much stronger emphasis within CUP will be spent on building community partnerships.

Historically, the CUP has placed the importance of developing partnerships within the Cornell community as a very low priority. As Ostrander describes, traditional CUP policing practices, which emphasize random patrol and call response, are only marginally effective in addressing crime and public safety concerns. The development and implementation of a Community Policing program designed specifically for Cornell’s unique environment would correct this unfortunate situation. The goal of the program would be to reduce crime and the public fear of crime by seeking citizen involvement, cooperation and support from the many diverse sectors of the community. Operationally, CUP would seek to implement the Community Policing strategy through various programs.

In an effort to work more closely with the student body, one of the new programs Ostrander will propose would pair an officer to each campus residence, allowing students to get to know officers more personally. This program would be especially effective on North Campus in working with freshmen. The officers can use their expertise in teaching new students about campus programs and policies with which they are likely to be unfamiliar, such as medical amnesty and the Campus Code of Conduct.

The increase in CUP staffing will also allow officers to get out from behind the steering wheels of their intimidating patrol cars more often. Fixed beat assignments and more frequent utilization of the bicycle patrol program will all be possible with more officers on duty. The increase in visibility and ability to patrol more nooks of campus, along with the creation of a more approachable police force, will certainly be a benefit. And who knows, maybe you will bump into the officer you got to know freshman year.

Furthermore, in recognition that Cornell’s responsibility to its students does not just follow jurisdiction lines, CUP, with its increased staffing levels, will be able to work with the Ithaca Police Department to help patrol off-campus as requested. Hopefully, the more visible police presence in areas such as Collegetown will be able to prevent crimes like the muggings earlier this year.

This new staffing increase is just one part of larger CUP improvements. Recent changes in the Cornell Police Union’s contract were successful in paying officers more competitive wages and allows them to contribute more towards their retirement — allowing CUP to hire and retain high quality officers. Additionally, CUP is working with the State Department of Criminal Justice Services to address issues surrounding CUP’s access to their criminal records and missing persons databases, making the force more efficient.

With all of these changes in place or already in motion, CUP is much better poised to protect and serve the Cornell community.

The Student-Elected Trustee election process is currently underway. Only undergraduates at the time of the election are eligible to run this year, though all registered undergraduate, graduate and professional students are eligible to vote. The Trustee Nominating Committee will announce the slate of candidates this Friday. If you are interested in meeting the candidates in person and hearing what they have to say on campus issues, I strongly encourage you to attend the candidate debate, hosted by the Daily Sun. This event will be from 6:30-7:30 p.m. in 245 Warren Hall next Monday. You can submit questions that you would like to have asked in the debate via the Daily Sun webpage.

Online voting begins Monday April 16 at 8 a.m. and ends Wednesday April 18 at 10 a.m.

Doug Mitarotonda is a student-elected trustee. He can be contacted at dcm14@cornell.edu. Trustee Viewpoint appears alternate Tuesdays.