Public Safety (PSafe) is currently undergoing an external review of policies and procedures for the first time in 25 years. For three days, a group of assessors from the Loan Executive Management Assistance Program (LEMAP) observed and interacted with PSafe officers on campus.
“I think it’s important that we get recommendations and then develop a plan based on those,” said Director of PSafe Dave Meyer. “I’m using this as a guide for the next five to ten years, as a plan.”
LEMAP is a consulting service provided by the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators, an organization focused on the advancement of safety on college campuses. The group was represented at the University by the heads of public safety operations at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, Rhodes College in Tennessee, and Furman University in South Carolina, who will offer advice and analysis on how to improve the University’s Public Safety program once their review is complete.
“I sent them a lot of information ahead of time concerning procedures and staffing,” Meyer said. “They met with a variety of people on campus: Students, faculty and staff, most of the VPs, the president, ResLife, Physical Plant, Human Resources. They interviewed a wide variety of people on the campus.”
The LEMAP assessors attended the Dec. 14 Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA) meeting to discuss the suggestions of the Fountain Avenue Policy Recommendations report with the WSA Advisory Committee, WSA President Mike Pernick ’10, and Vice President Becky Weiss ’10. Released in November 2008 in response to the fountain avenue incident of May 2008, the report offered suggestions for improving student-PSafe relations, streamlining PSafe protocols for addressing violations of the Code of Non-Academic Conduct, and determining the circumstances under which PSafe should request assistance from the Middletown Police.
“It was valuable to hear about the Public Safety of other schools and see how they approach these issues,” Pernick said.
LEMAP’s written PSafe report will potentially arrive within the month, according to Meyer.
“It’s hard to say if it will be available publicly,” Meyer added.
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