Sept. 21, 2021

Judge John West

Director James Whalen
Crime Analyst Michael Zidar

Director James Whalen

Director James Whalen
Assistant Chief Dudley Smith

Director James Whalen

Bobby Hilton
Michael Zidar
David Brinker
K.Z. Smith
David Hoffman
Gregory Baker
Charlene Ventura
Jack Martin
Rickell Smith
John West
Margaret Fox
Dudley Smith
Kelly Cantwell
Terri Theetge
James Whalen
Robin Engel
Aprilynne Gable
Emma Palmer
Jeffrey Thompson

Judge John West

Mike Zidar

Crime around campus; See Power Point Presentation

• Crime is down in almost all major categories.
• We are finalist in the Herman Goldstein Award for Problem Solving.
• Decrease in robberies all over the concentration of student residence (CSR) area.
  • The July 11^th robbery: 3 of 4 are in the Justice Center. Their arrest caused a significant decrease in vehicle thefts in the area.
• To date in September, we have only had 3 burglaries-well below the average.
• Theft from auto: is a crime of opportunity. We have declined since the students have been back on campus. This decline is attributed partly to the increase in directed patrol by our officers.
• Judge West-asked what do we do to support those students who are victims of crime?
  • Director Whalen – stated that Public Safety has a victim’s advocate, Jen Rowe and victims are provided her information at the time of the incident. He also stated that the University has Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) available for all students. The department of Student Affairs is able to offer some assistance too.
• Margaret Fox asked if there were any correlations between those carrying guns and the crime numbers?
  • Robin Engel-We really need to attribute the significant decreases in the crime around campus to our crime analyst and the officers who are thinking outside of the box and not just relying on traditional police responses. We have been trending down for quite some time around the university. 

• The University returned to largely in person classes.
• Facial coverings are a requirement for indoors, unless there is an exemption.
• 1 resident hall for quarantine and isolation. Its running at less than 20-25% capacity
• Athletics is in full return
• Requirement for vaccine:
  • We were aware that the hospitals were going to require vaccines prior to our mandate. One criticism that was noted was about stakeholder input.
  • Surveys were put out to faculty, staff and students about their feelings on the vaccine requirement with 75-80% support of the vaccine requirement.
  • In January 2022, all faculty, staff and students will be required to be fully vaccinated or have sought and obtained an exemption.
• Greg Baker-asked who is responsible for enforcing the vaccine policy?
• Director Whalen - responded UCPD will not be enforcing anything not required by law. It will be up to Student Affairs for Students, Human Resources for staff. Come spring semester, unvaccinated students will not be permitted to enroll unless they have a qualified exemption. The only time the police will get involved is when there is a crime being committed. 

Assistant Chief Dudley Smith and Director James Whalen

Public Safety Personnel Changes – Director Whalen

• Kim Willis has retired to Florida
• Lauren Harmon will be assuming Kim’s duties but is currently on maternity leave. Lauren is an existing employee and was not hired from the outside. Pia Washington is covering for her until Lauren returns in November. 

Hiring of Security Officers – Assistant Chief Smith

Public Safety has 3 new Security Officers who will begin work on October 4^th. They completed a physical agility, back ground check, polygraph and sat through two interview panels. There was a 4^th, but she will probably apply for the police officer position.  The plan is to have them out of training and on their own around Christmas.

• Herbert (Glen) Anderson
• Beau Harmon
• Greg Weber

Taser/Axion Update- Director Whalen and Assistant Chief Smith

Signed a long term contract to update the Tasers and desk cam with new technology. The new tasers initiate the body worn camera once drawn. The plan is to receive new tasers every 3 years and new dash cameras in years 3 and 8. 

We are hiring- Director Whalen

We ask that everyone here use your networks to get the word out. We are about to begin the process of hiring 3 police officers now with the possibility of hiring 1-2 more at the end of the year.

Ohio Collaborate Reassessment- Director Whalen

See PowerPoint

Dr. Engel sits on the Governor’s board. They establish standards for law enforcement agencies. We are in good standing with all of the standards. The last two sub points, in the right hand corner, are new. We are in good shape. We are due for review and assessor will be sent from the State in October.

• Dr. Engel-on the last two points, have direct connection to UC and CPD. They are the work of one of our former UC graduates Tamera Herold and CPD officer SGT Donald Scott to be sure that we has standards state wide.
• Rickell Smith asked about Mass Protest and Demonstrations. What do those standards look like? Can you give us an example of a standard practice is of this body?
  • Dr. Engel-every agency must have a policy and provides what exact information those policies should include. All information is publically available.
    • Dr. Engel provided the link in the chat
  • Director Whalen to Rickell Smith-Our existing policy met the standard when it was reviewed and issued.
  • Dr. Engel -we have heard testimony from citizens who were not involved in this body and get their perspectives and from officers who were not injured in protests.
• Jack Martin -do policies require that training is in place already to be accepted or does training follow once policies are accepted?
  • Dr. Engel - Standards are generally around the policies and the training that is around that. Agencies generally submit the policy and training at the same time, if there are training required. 

Administrative Review:

5/21 PO complained (about a police officer in charge of details) because he was not notified that a detail was canceled. This was not our responsibility; fell on Athletics-they did not notify us of the change. Athletics compensated the PO for their time.

6/12 Dispatcher complained that another dispatcher discussed their personal matter with another dispatcher. Coaching and counseling was provided.

Internal Investigation:

9/2 A police officer was neglectful in her official police duties for neglecting to assist a landlord (off campus) getting occupants to open the door- not sustained

Citizen Complaints:

5/15 A Security Officer and used foul language at a parking lot attendant and parked on the vehicles improperly. Sustained-1^st offense officer received coaching.

8/12 A Security Officer at Langsam Library was reported by an Amazon driver of being discourteous. It was discovered that the Amazon driver was the instigator and Amazon fired the driver. In the process of the investigation it was discovered that the Security Officer said to the Amazon driver under her breath “acting like a little girl”. The Security Officer received a coaching for the comment.

8/21 A Police officer was reported to be discourteous-aggressive-not sustained.

9/2 Public Safety Director was accused or making Clifton Ave dangerous by advocating for the removal of the bike lane on Clifton Ave. This was reviewed and exonerated by President Pinto.

• Jack Martin was asked what he thinks about the issues with the bike lane. “I am on both sides of the fence. I think there should be a more comprehensive plan that is made for the bike lane consideration. There are a lot of problems with the pedestrians, bicycles and vehicles. Let’s back up and do a good plan for the Clifton Ave and get more people involved.”
• Director Whalen - It’s not the university’s position to do away with the bike lane. We are looking forward to the future conversations about it.
• Rickell Smith asks- Who investigates complaints against the director?
  • Director Whalen states- The president
  • Rickell Smith asks -He follows the same process?
  • Director Whalen - we generated the same documents and presented it to him and he made to decisions. 

Director Whalen

5/20/21 During a large campus event, someone saw police lights on Corry Blvd and pulled up with an unconscious woman inside the vehicle. The UCPD responding officers administered Narcan, CPR (including mouth to mouth) and deployed an AED. The woman was therefore resuscitated. The following officers received the award.

• Sgt. Reeme
• PO Boraten
• PO Kidd
• PO Milton
• PO Hutchings

December 2021