Feb. 4, 2003

DC City Council Considers Bill to Enhance UPD

By Greg Licamele

The DC City Council is considering a bill that would grant all city university police departments concurrent jurisdiction authority, giving the 10 institutions the ability to enter agreements with the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) to more effectively patrol streets and sidewalks in and around campus boundaries.

The proposed legislation, known as the “Campus Police Force Cooperation Act of 2002,” is currently before the city council’s Judiciary Committee. Initiated by MPD, the proposal grants campus police personnel the power to arrest and enforce District criminal and civil statutes, to share resources and radio frequencies, and to permit campus police to process suspects. Currently, GW’s University Police Department (UPD) is limited in responding to felonies and 17 probable cause misdemeanors such as unlawful entry, attempted burglary, simple assault, shoplifting, and reckless driving on public property within campus boundaries. UPD Chief Dolores Stafford says her officers can respond to probable cause misdemeanors on public property only if an officer witnesses the act. She says that if a community member witnesses one of these misdemeanors or other causes of complaint and contacts her staff, UPD cannot take action, but MPD can.

“We’re not asking to go outside of our boundaries,” Stafford says. “We’re asking to have jurisdiction within our current patrol area. Now, depending on the situation, UPD officers may not have the legal right to deal with something.”

Stafford says UPD officers are trained now to respond to violations of DC law that happen on GW property. However, UPD must contact MPD for assistance on other incidents such as noise complaints, vandalism, traffic accidents, and zoning violations.

“What ends up happening is we waste MPD’s time by having them respond to calls we already respond to,” Stafford says. “Where we need them, they always respond. But why should we both respond to minor incidents that can be handled by one of the agencies?”

Legislative bodies must grant concurrent jurisdiction. New York State granted its 64-campus state university system and officers the power of concurrent jurisdiction. Virginia and Louisiana granted the jurisdiction to Old Dominion University in Norfolk and Tulane University in New Orleans, respectively. Old Dominion uses a one-mile radius beyond its campus boundaries to patrol the streets of Norfolk in conjunction with local law enforcement.

Concurrent jurisdiction is not uncommon in the District, either, though it is relatively new. In 2000, federal government law enforcement agencies were given the ability to enter into agreements with MPD. To date, the General Services Administration, Amtrak, Defense Protective Services, FBI Police, and the National Zoological Park Police have partnered with MPD.

“Since criminals do not respect these lines of jurisdiction between city and campus, it is imperative that there is strong coordination between MPD and university security officers,” says Justin Wagner, chair of the Georgetown Advisory Neighborhood Commission’s public safety committee. “Our community finds the resources of MPD stretched to its limits.”

Wagner, who testified in front of the Judiciary Committee, says one solution to MPD’s limited resources would be occasional patrols by campus security agencies throughout the three to five blocks immediately surrounding Georgetown University. “Patrols late at night would deter criminals by providing a much needed police presence in our community,” he says.

Stafford stresses that if the law passes, each campus police agency must decide whether or not to develop cooperative agreements with MPD outlining responsibilities. Stafford says GW would work with MPD for this enhanced role.

“We respect what MPD does,” Stafford says. “We’re not trying to replace MPD. But we recognize that MPD has limited resources and MPD supports these agreements. The law enforcement community, more than ever after Sept. 11, 2001, has to work together.”

In testimony before the Judiciary Committee on Oct. 24, MPD Chief Charles Ramsey said, “These existing cooperative agreements (with federal police agencies) have been an important complement to the MPD’s law enforcement and crime prevention efforts. We would welcome the opportunity to explore similar agreements with our campus police forces.”

The proposal, which the Judiciary Committee has tabled until this month, calls for campus police officers to be held to the same standards as MPD officers. Certain types of misconduct would be investigated by the Citizen Complaint Review Board, the same process MPD officers are subject to.

Colleen Carson, director of public safety at American University, says that although AU is located in a more closed environment and that her officers have clear boundaries of jurisdiction from MPD, she sees one neighborhood benefit from AU police issuing parking tickets.

“Our current neighborhood parking enforcement program, which was mandated by the DC Zoning Commission, would be slightly more effective with more DC tickets being issued,” Carson says.

Stafford says one concern recently voiced by members of the Foggy Bottom Advisory Neighborhood Commission, who Stafford says originally supported this measure when it was first introduced in 1994, is the amount of training UPD officers receive. Stafford says GW officers receive 700 hours of training in the first two years, in addition to ongoing annual training. She says UPD officers would undergo additional training to further understand their new roles if this law passes. She also cites the training at the campus police academy, operated through the Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area and led by William “Que” Taylor, a former MPD officer with over 30 years of law enforcement experience.

UPD also is currently engaged in the same three-year accreditation process as MPD through the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, which will lead to GW police operating at the highest level possible.

Overall, Stafford would like a clearer working environment for her officers to protect the GW and Foggy Bottom communities.

“I don’t want the officers to have to look down and see if they’re standing on the sidewalk or on a GW blade of grass,” Stafford says. “So in order to effectively do the job, if we have a defined boundary and we all know where it is, we can respond even more effectively to complaints from students and neighbors.”

 

Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu