Are Public Safety's Officers "Real" Officers?

We get this question often. The short answer is yes. There are many types of police, public safety and security departments at colleges, dependent upon the range of services each college chooses to or is able to provide for their community.

Private colleges and universities in Massachusetts can elect, as Mount Holyoke College has, to have their officers sworn as Special State Police Officers under Massachusetts General Laws Ch. 22C s. 63. This law allows duly appointed officers the same power to make arrests as municipal police officers for any criminal offense committed in or upon lands or structures owned, used or occupied by such college.

Hiring and re-appointment of our officers is governed by the Massachusetts Code of Massachusetts Regulations, and hold our officers to a very high standard of training and re-training. For example, an officer can not be appointed as a sworn officer on our campus unless s/he has a Full-Time Academy OR a part-time academy PLUS a minimum of an Associates Degree in Law Enforcement or Criminal Justice.

This standard includes hiring and on-going training for our part-time officers who work an average of once a week. This affects our recruitment efforts; a new part-time academy graduate can work for a municipality but is not eligible to work for our department. However, when they have completed the additional requirements, we are able to hire more experienced and educated officers - if they have not already developed in-roads to a municipal department. (Though we personally believe this is the best community to work in, with more opportunities to learn and to work with a diverse and active student and employee population!)

Officers, once appointed, can make full custody arrests for violations of Massachusetts and Federal Law. Of course, this is a small percentage of what our officers do - officers spend much more time patrolling the campus, investigating incidents (both criminal and non-criminal), providing services such as medical transportation, lockouts, responding to medical emergencies, and many other responsibilities. But when a crime occurs and a suspect is identified, officers are there if needed to make the arrest and see the case through the judicial system.

If you would like to see how much officers do during the year, visit our web site and go to the Publications page. Check out our annual report. We expect to publish our 2007 annual report this July. You can see a daily accounting of incidents reported to the department by visiting our daily logs, or see each call officers answer by checking our dispatch logs.

Why Does Public Safety have that Big SUV? Why not be Green?

This is a wonderful question, and one which we are happy to answer.

Public Safety currently operates one Chevrolet Tahoe (SUV) and one Ford Crown Victoria (sedan). Gas mileage is a big consideration when replacing a vehicle.

It may surprise our readers to learn that the Tahoe, according to estimates on the Chevrolet web site, averages 19-20 miles per gallon. The Crown Victoria, according to Ford's web site, averages 18 miles per gallon. This surprised us when we started researching fuel-efficient vehicles several years ago. Of course, mileage varies with adding equipment, and we don't operate on the highway very often, but certainly even if the gas mileages estimated by the manufacturers are off by a mile or two per gallon, the two vehicles are still very comparable.

The SUVs (Tahoes) have a marked advantage over the sedan-type cruisers. Our officers carry quite a bit of equipment, including keys, paperwork, an AED, motor vehicle battery packs, full medical kits, and more. We also very often have passengers, some of whom are on crutches, and the Crown Victoria does not have the same passenger and cargo capacity.

Another important consideration is that our vehicles must be operable 24x7, seven days a week despite the weather. The Crown Victoria has to be parked if the roadways are snow-covered as they do not have the traction the SUVs have. Due to these benefits, we are actually planning on replacing the Crown Victoria we currently own with a second Tahoe as we had two years ago; the benefits are just too important to providing continuous service to our community.

The Department is researching SUV hybrid options, to join those in the college's Fleet. However, the costs are significantly higher than the costs for traditional SUVs which would put too much stress on the college's already escalating vehicle replacement budget.

Additionally, we try to further reduce fuel costs by providing a variety of other methods of patrol, including foot patrol and bicycle patrol, fueled only by human effort, and Segway patrol, fueled by an on-board electric battery. The only down side to these methods is they are weather-dependent to some degree, and depend on having enough staffing to be able to efficiently respond to emergencies.

Public Safety's current Chevy Tahoe.