U. redeploys security guards

Students walking around campus at night this fall will notice a lot fewer SpectaGuards on patrol -- but those that are there will be increasingly mobile. Though the University customarily hires fewer SpectaGuard security guards to patrol campus in the summer months, it will not increase the levels back up to normal school year numbers when the fall semester arrives, according to University Security Director Stratis Skoufalos. Instead, the University is in the process of replacing many of the SpectaGuards currently on walking patrol with a new unit of bike patrols, based on the successful models of the Penn Police and the University City District's safety ambassadors. But Skoufalos maintained that the decline in the number of SpectaGuards is not a cause for concern given frequent changes in the past. "The number of SpectaGuard officers that is assigned here is a fluctuating number," Skoufalos said in June. "This is just another one of our deployment things." The University's plan, Skoufalos said, is to cover the same areas in and around campus more efficiently by putting two wheels underneath its patrol officers. "We can be effective covering more ground and more responsive to campus needs by being mobile on bicycles," he said. "We thought it was a natural evolution." Larry Rubin, a spokesperson for SpectaGuard, said no officers would be fired as a result of these changes. The guards being taken from the Penn campus this summer will be permanently re-assigned to other SpectaGuard accounts. But SpectaGuard Assistant Vice President Gesi McAllister did note that the personnel shifts could have an economic impact on the officers themselves. SpectaGuards on walking patrol make at least $10 per hour, while the officers moved to "interior positions" -- such as working at residential desks -- make as little as $8 an hour for the less "physically demanding" work. "There aren't that many jobs that pay as much [as the walking patrol positions], but then again, they're not doing the same work," McAllister said. "Most of them will wind up making less." None of the 10 security guards approached by The Daily Pennsylvanian would comment on the planned changes, citing clauses in their contracts requiring confidentiality. While Skoufalos would not commit the University to either a set number of SpectaGuards on patrol or a timetable for the transition from walking to cycling patrols, he emphasized that this new policy was not merely "experimental." "We're always looking to do things better," he said. "It's a calculated deployment strategy." He added that the bike patrols, unveiled in late summer, would replace many -- but not all -- of the walking patrols in a "seamless process." "Bikes are a sort of a growing trend in security work," Rubin added, citing examples such as suburban shopping malls and the campuses of Drexel and Temple universities. "The bike patrols will create greater visibility and effectiveness." The University has used SpectaGuard as its security-guard contractor since January 1997, after years of using various guard services -- including one whose employees were caught sleeping on the job. The SpectaGuard bike patrols supplement the University Police patrols. Last fall, about 20 of the 100 University Police officers were part of the Division of Public Safety's bike-patrol unit. PennWatch, the University's student-run town watch group, also patrols the area on bicycles.

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