University Police hope to be ranked among nation's best

Penn's Division of Public Safety has something to prove. Although the department has the largest private police force in Pennsylvania and is implementing new policies that will soon radically reduce its dependence on city police, Public Safety officials are seeking to counter anyone who thinks they are "just" a campus security force. Penn is now about halfway through the several-year process of gaining national accreditation, a move that would cement its growing reputation as a top-notch police force. Such a change would improve operations and efficiency, boost morale and save money on insurance and lawsuits, officials said. "It's proving that we're a professional police agency," said University Police Lt. Michael Fink, who has coordinated the department's efforts since it initiated the process in 1996. Only 2 percent of U.S. law enforcement agencies are accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, a 19-year-old coalition of police groups that seeks to professionalize policing by setting rigorous voluntary standards. Other accredited forces include those at Georgetown and Brown universities, and a few in Pennsylvania, like the state police and the Philadelphia Housing Authority. The Philadelphia Police, and most other big-city forces, do not have accreditation. And while Public Safety is still about two years away from gaining accreditation, officials say the process has already immensely improved the division's efficiency. "There are a lot of issues the accreditation process has helped us with," Fink said. "There are a lot of things we're doing now that we might not have done [otherwise]." Vice President for Public Safety Thomas Seamon -- who oversees the entire Division of Public Safety, which includes the University Police, Security Services and Special Services -- considers the effort so important that he included it in his campus security "master plan" released in 1996. Seamon, who was a deputy Philadelphia Police commissioner before coming to Penn in 1995, said in a recent interview that the process "forces us to look at every nook and cranny" of the department to make sure that everything is up to par. Indeed, the magnitude of the project forces law-enforcement agencies to improve every aspect of policing. "They literally go from A to Z in everything a police agency needs to do," Fink said. To become accredited, the Division of Public Safety -- which has 102 sworn police officers and about two dozen civilian employees -- must satisfy 338 mandatory standards set by the accreditation group, as well as 80 percent of another 98 standards. Standards include the way an agency should recruit and train new officers, what type of equipment and facilities the department should have and guidelines on the general operations of the agency. Many standards also stipulate that the department must have a written set of rules, regarding things like "a code or a canon of ethics," or "procedures for responding to routine emergency calls and includes guidelines for the use of authorized emergency equipment." According to the Fairfax, Va., group's Web site, the standards "prescribe 'what' agencies should be doing, but not 'how' they should be doing it." Accreditation brings with it several advantages, Fink said. The first is that the introspection forces law-enforcement agencies to improve themselves before qualifying for accreditation. "One of the ultimate goals is to continually progress and professionalize the department," Fink said. It also often leads to cheaper liability insurance and a better defense in lawsuits against it, since the agency can point toward its accreditation as proof of its excellence. Employees also get a morale boost from knowing that they are part of "a professional police agency," Fink said. Fink has spent the past two years combing through regulations and re-writing departmental policies so they are in step with the requirements. Once officials believe the department is in compliance with the standards, they will hold a "mock assessment," where a team of police officials who have been through the process before will inspect the department in much the same way as the actual assessors will. Then, the commission will send three people to Penn to spend several days "literally going through every file" of the department to ensure that Public Safety meets all of the stringent regulations, Fink said. The assessors will interview officers and ride along with officers on duty. They will also hold a public information session, where they can talk to the community about its police force. Seamon promised that the assessment will be while classes are in session so that students are in town to attend the public meeting. Once the assessment is complete, the team will issue a preliminary report to Seamon and report back to the full commission. Public Safety would then be officially accredited a few months later at a hearing. Agencies must then apply for re-accreditation every three years to ensure continued compliance.