EDITORIAL: Bravo to Seamon for high-tech HQ

The new building is the latest addition to the public safety head's already impressive record. Almost from his first day at Penn in 1995, Seamon, a former deputy Philadelphia Police commissioner, has been looking to consolidate all campus security operations -- including University Police, Public Safety's Special Services Division, Spectaguard security personnel and the campus' electronic security systems -- into one building. The need for such a building has long been obvious. As recently as one year ago, Public Safety had been housed in four separate locations, hindering communications between departments and making it harder for students to quickly gain access to the resources they need. Additionally, Public Safety's main facilities were located across from High Rise North in the middle of Superblock, leading many community members and students living off campus to accuse the University Police of focusing a disproportionate amount of their attention on patrolling campus areas. The new building should solve both of these concerns. Having all operations under one roof should improve interaction and communication between the different divisions, increasing their effectiveness in keeping the area safe. And relocating into the heart of the neighborhood should eliminate fears of a police force which focuses solely on campus areas, ignoring the off-campus locations inhabited by thousands of students and faculty. The building is the latest, and most significant, addition to Seamon's already-impressive record at Penn. In the nearly two years since he released his campus security master plan, Seamon and his top aide, Director of Police Operations Maureen Rush, have succeeded in implementing many of its initiatives. In addition to the new building, Seamon signed a long-term purchasing agreement with the Sensormatic Security Corp. to provide Penn with high-tech electronic security equipment and hired the Spectaguard Co. to provide security personnel to patrol the areas on and around campus. Just as importantly, in the aftermath of the crime wave in fall 1996, Seamon was able to double the size of the Penn Police's investigative unit and add nearly 20 new police officers. Police officers, especially at Penn, have some of the hardest jobs around. Students demand a crime-free environment and criticize police when such an environment fails to materialize. Conversely, few notice when the police do their jobs well -- a lack of crime is never as exciting as an abundance of it. But it is no coincidence that crime at Penn has been steadily falling. Credit for the good news should be given to the police as readily as criticism for the bad.