There are 28 new sheriffs in town.
Drexel University has recently begun the process of building a campus police department, which will be similar to Penn Police.
This decision comes at a time when the university is growing and the needs of the community are changing, officials said.
"We felt that the university's public-safety program needed to grow with the university's population," said Domenic Ceccanecchio, senior associate vice president for Public Safety at Drexel.
He said the student population has almost doubled in the last 10 years.
Ceccanecchio, who has worked for both the Penn and Philadelphia police, plans to "combine what I learned at both places to use the best practices of modern policing."
Nationwide, three-quarters of campus safety departments employ sworn police officers with full arrest powers, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Penn's police department is the third largest in the country, with 100 officers.
The influence of a Drexel police department will not be limited to the Drexel community.
"I like the idea of having another police department to the northeast," said Penn Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush.
She added that a Drexel police department is a "great idea in that it allows them to have immediate follow-up, as we have."
While Rush thinks Drexel police will "help curtail crime, no doubt," she said the addition of the Drexel force would not automatically lead to lower crime rates.
"There is not just one factor that affects crime, so I can't say crime will go down," she said.
Ceccanecchio said the uniformed officers will begin patrol sometime in the beginning of 2009. He said that he expects the program to cost $2.5 million to establish.
Currently, Drexel employs unarmed security officials who cannot make arrests.
In addition, two off-duty Philadelphia police officers patrol the campus.
The student reaction at Drexel seems to be positive, according to Drexel senior Noah Cohen, who said he has "not heard a single negative comment."
Cohen said that under Drexel's current system, "If a security officer sees a mugging, they call Philly police because they can't make an arrest."
"I personally think it is great that Drexel is getting its own police force," Drexel freshman Ashley Peskoe wrote in an e-mail.
Pescoe added that, "It definitely cannot hurt to have more law enforcement on campus."
