New funds, more cops

Caitlin Gibbons
cgibbon4@mscd.edu

Auraria Campus’ Police Department continues to grow with the addition of two new officers.
Last spring, the Auraria Police had funding for 22 officers, and three of those spots were vacant.
According to Chief John Mackey of the Auraria Police, the colleges have supported an additional police sergeant and officer, bringing the force to 23 officers.

After the school shootings at Virginia Tech in 2007 and Northern Illinois University in 2008, concerns grew about the small number of police patrolling campus.

At the time, Auraria only had 19 officers on a campus with 43,000 people, making the force 24 officers shy of the number of officers recommended for a population that size.

There should be one officer for every 1,000 people on campus, Deputy of Police John Egan said.

Fifty percent of the funding for one position came from UCD, as the force has taken over responsibility of patrolling the two UCD buildings located off campus across Speer Boulevard.

UCD will pay the force $25,000 annually. ACPD took over patrolling the buildings in August after the Democratic National Convention and for this year, have received $16,000 in funding.

The Auraria Campus Safety Initiative recently received a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, which will be paid over three years.

The Auraria Police, will receive $60,000 over the next three years from that grant. Auraria Police will use those funds to support detectives, an administrative sergeant and officers involved in the victim services program.

Like the rest of the campus, budgeting is still an issue for the force.

ACPD won’t know what the departments budget for next year will be until all three schools on campus finalize their budgets, Mackey said.

Schools across the state are facing large budget cuts in wake of the large deficit Colorado is facing for the 2009 fiscal year. Metro alone will have $2.5 million cut from their state funding.
“The budget is being reviewed daily, and adjustments are being made wherever possible,” Mackey said. “It will be a month before we know what were are really looking at with budget cuts.”

The state allocates money to each college based on enrollment. With that money and other funds, such as tuition and parking fees, the schools jointly fund campus police.

The national average at four year institutions is three officers per 1,000 students, according to a 2004 report from the U.S. Department of Justice. With the 23 officers on the force, Auraria is still well below the recommended number of officers.

Despite the fact that Auraria Police force are small for the population it serves, students feel safe on campus.

Shawn Gamity, an accounting major at CCD, said that she has always felt safe on campus, even when attending night classes.

Valarie Branstetter, a mechanical engineering technology major, is a long time student at Auraria and has always felt safe on campus.

“There is a good police presence here. I’ve never personally been a victim of crime on campus and have never heard of anyone else being a victim.” Branstetter said.

Campus police, under the Clery Act, are required to keep a log of all crimes that happen within their jurisdiction.

The Cleary Act also requires higher-education institutions to give timely warnings of crimes that represent a threat to the safety of students and employees.

In January, 13 crimes were reported in the log, only three of which had a connection to Auraria. Auraria Police also keep a daily crime blog that tracks all reported incidents on campus.