Safety and Security Are Our Highest Priorities

The safety and security of our campus is my, and everyone’s, highest priority.

Four years ago, during lean fiscal periods when campus budgets were being severely cut, we increased our commitments to campus security. Since then, we have invested nearly $2 million to increase the number of security personnel and enhance technology.

Despite the relative on-campus safety we enjoy, we are impacted by the crime in surrounding jurisdictions. We have responded with more expansive and assertive crime prevention and fighting methods. These steps include the installation of hundreds of closed-circuit cameras across the campus, new blue-light emergency phones, cameras in the College Park Shopping Center, cameras recording every vehicle entering and leaving campus, electronic entry to all campus buildings, improved lighting, and many others. They also include redeployment of security officers in response to incidents of crime and continuation of security escort services provided around the clock. Increased staffing, sharper focus on high-risk areas, and enhanced technology have resulted in more effective investigations and increasing numbers of arrests.

We must continue expanding our joint efforts with the state and county police to make College Park unattractive to criminals. This is an area where we can all help. Security personnel will conduct high-visibility patrols and directed stops to identify the purposes of visitors. Saturation patrols will make a law enforcement presence highly visible to the public and potential criminals. Increased safety requires deterrence of criminal elements.

A consequence of tightened security is a greater need for all campus citizens to cooperate. I regret that increased security may mean less convenience for some of us during this period. But we need your help: inform yourself about on-campus resources (http://www.umpd.umd.edu/), avoid high-risk behaviors, and support our increased security efforts.

I am fully committed to dedicating whatever resources are necessary to minimize crime for everyone on and near our campus.

C. D. Mote, Jr., President