Author Description

This report, based on a new BJS survey, presents data collected from nearly 600 campus law enforcement agencies serving 4-year colleges and universities with 2,500 or more students. Three-fourths of these agencies used sworn police officers while the remainder relied on nonsworn security officers. Public campuses (93%) were more likely to have sworn officers than those under private control (43%); however, about three-fourths of the private universities with 10,000 or more students used sworn police. Sworn campus police officers typically had to pass through many more screening devices and undergo 3 to 4 times as much training as their nonsworn counterparts. Per student employment and expenditure for law enforcement at private institutions was nearly twice that of public campuses. Nearly all agencies operated general crime prevention programs on campus, and about two-thirds had programs aimed specifically at rape prevention. Other topics covered by the report include agency functions, personnel characteristics, equipment, computers and information systems, and policy directives. General campus characteristics, including crime statistics, are also summarized.