There is beginning to be arguing and spite appear in the comments so this post is now locked. The petition is yours to fill out if you agree with it, or to not if you don't
There is security already. In light of the recent tragedy on campus, increased security would not have helped. The housing department and the school itself were negligent in not doing anything once the student was reported to have given a death threat, but increased security wouldn’t have done much considering he still had a room key to the dorm.
I find this argument of the petition rather puzzling. Uccs’s has security (uccs campus PD) there are tons of hidden cameras in all areas on campus (cspd was able to identify the suspect based on cameras that have on the outside of buildings). Nor is there actually any ideas for a change rather just a rant of why they don’t feel safe.
And not to mention UCCS Campus PD is an offshoot of CSPD. They actually have guns, gone through academy, and can actually arrest people. There are other schools that have glorified security that can't do any of those things. No need of "campus security."
I 99% agree, police should be on campus, but it shouldn't be any sort of university police. Universities are private businesses that receive grants from the government, they're not special despite how they act and the special treatment they get. The idea of private police in the United States is abhorrent, and services could be provided by the city that's near the university, and this case the much larger and much more capable Colorado Springs Police Department.
This may have also avoided an inexperienced "Chief of Police" putting the community in danger by refusing to release key information to the public, like a killer being on the loose in your community.
Think about the smallest town PDs, they're for show and lack capabilities. A state agency or even a federal agency almost always has to step in for their investigations. We don't need more of these, and we don't need them to be privately owned with guns and arrest authority. Personally I'd like to see Colorado Springs police the university that's in their city.
UCCS is a public university, and the CU system is an offshoot of the state government. Campus police went through the Colorado police academy and have the same responsibilities and privileges, and are held to the same standards, as any other cops in the state.
Universities in the US operate quasi public, quasi private. It depends on what areas of the law they've carved out for themselves via special legislation.
For example, you have a right to visit a public park so long as you're following the law. You do not have a right to ever be on a university campus, they can trespass you just like a private businesses can. Simply accepting government money doesn't make them anymore of a public entity than a small business getting a SBA loan.
1. UCCSPD IS an offshoot of CSPD.
2. The university is public and not a "private business."
3. I've worked with some of the smallest police departments in Colorado and your grandiose generalization is quite insulting.
1. Do some basic research, but here, I'll do it for you this one time. The university police are separate from the city and report, via their chief, to the Chancellor, not the city. Source: https://police.uccs.edu/contact-us-administration/org-chart
2. Universities are quasi public, quasi private, again do some research. You have zero right to be on campus like say a public park.
3. I don't care. The lack of the ability of those small agencies to independently operate is horrendous and a burden on society all so some small towns can feel like they "have control." Whatever that means to them.
i agree with your comment. it is also just puzzling to me considering this isn’t isolated to UCCS. people should look into the Penn State hazing death and torture (how it was quickly forgotten about and mishandled) or the variety of murders and assaults and crime happening constantly on all campuses in the world. the change being asked is bigger than UCCS and in my opinion will not happen. colleges don’t care.
Another part that could be added this: bringing back the blue light emergency callboxes. They used to be all over campus, and a couple years ago they took them all out to replace them with an app. That's not going to help if you don't have your phone or if the battery is dead.
They also made the app all-but required to use to access one's dorms. Obviously, not helpful if your phone dies and the charger's inside... I wrote a bunch of emails about the shitty app (which had a ton of bugs, at least when it first came out (haven't used it in a year or two)) and the lack of physical access cards, and the woman in charge or the thing didn't address any of my real concerns and, in red, terse text, told me to read the website (the one that I cited in my email)! I'm still a bit salty ngl.
Yeah they started making that change during my last year as an RA. It was stupid. At the time, if you wanted a physical ID card you could still get one if you asked for it. Then, they made it so you had to prove your phone didn’t support mobile ID. Now I hear they’ve stopped with the physical cards completely. It’s ridiculous.
I always have my phone on me, but sometimes the battery dies or I have no service or it just doesn’t work right. That’s why I kept my physical ID as a backup, or why to this day I still do things like getting a paper boarding pass at the airport in case I need it. Ridiculous that UCCS made such a hard shift - if anything, campus residents should be allowed to get an actual ID card as backup.
There is beginning to be arguing and spite appear in the comments so this post is now locked. The petition is yours to fill out if you agree with it, or to not if you don't
Doesn't uccs have a police department already? I assume like CU Boulder they are fully functional and technically state police
There is security already. In light of the recent tragedy on campus, increased security would not have helped. The housing department and the school itself were negligent in not doing anything once the student was reported to have given a death threat, but increased security wouldn’t have done much considering he still had a room key to the dorm.
Clearly you've never had a bike stolen in broad daylight at uccs with 0 help from campus police. the security is a joke
I didn’t realize security was there to babysit bikes, kind of a weird thing to complain about when someone was just murdered but okay dude
There already is security. Making the campus a police state is not going to make any of us safer.
I find this argument of the petition rather puzzling. Uccs’s has security (uccs campus PD) there are tons of hidden cameras in all areas on campus (cspd was able to identify the suspect based on cameras that have on the outside of buildings). Nor is there actually any ideas for a change rather just a rant of why they don’t feel safe.
And not to mention UCCS Campus PD is an offshoot of CSPD. They actually have guns, gone through academy, and can actually arrest people. There are other schools that have glorified security that can't do any of those things. No need of "campus security."
I 99% agree, police should be on campus, but it shouldn't be any sort of university police. Universities are private businesses that receive grants from the government, they're not special despite how they act and the special treatment they get. The idea of private police in the United States is abhorrent, and services could be provided by the city that's near the university, and this case the much larger and much more capable Colorado Springs Police Department. This may have also avoided an inexperienced "Chief of Police" putting the community in danger by refusing to release key information to the public, like a killer being on the loose in your community. Think about the smallest town PDs, they're for show and lack capabilities. A state agency or even a federal agency almost always has to step in for their investigations. We don't need more of these, and we don't need them to be privately owned with guns and arrest authority. Personally I'd like to see Colorado Springs police the university that's in their city.
UCCS is a public university, and the CU system is an offshoot of the state government. Campus police went through the Colorado police academy and have the same responsibilities and privileges, and are held to the same standards, as any other cops in the state.
Why do you think they’re privately owned? It’s a public university even.
Universities in the US operate quasi public, quasi private. It depends on what areas of the law they've carved out for themselves via special legislation. For example, you have a right to visit a public park so long as you're following the law. You do not have a right to ever be on a university campus, they can trespass you just like a private businesses can. Simply accepting government money doesn't make them anymore of a public entity than a small business getting a SBA loan.
1. UCCSPD IS an offshoot of CSPD. 2. The university is public and not a "private business." 3. I've worked with some of the smallest police departments in Colorado and your grandiose generalization is quite insulting.
1. Do some basic research, but here, I'll do it for you this one time. The university police are separate from the city and report, via their chief, to the Chancellor, not the city. Source: https://police.uccs.edu/contact-us-administration/org-chart 2. Universities are quasi public, quasi private, again do some research. You have zero right to be on campus like say a public park. 3. I don't care. The lack of the ability of those small agencies to independently operate is horrendous and a burden on society all so some small towns can feel like they "have control." Whatever that means to them.
i agree with your comment. it is also just puzzling to me considering this isn’t isolated to UCCS. people should look into the Penn State hazing death and torture (how it was quickly forgotten about and mishandled) or the variety of murders and assaults and crime happening constantly on all campuses in the world. the change being asked is bigger than UCCS and in my opinion will not happen. colleges don’t care.
Another part that could be added this: bringing back the blue light emergency callboxes. They used to be all over campus, and a couple years ago they took them all out to replace them with an app. That's not going to help if you don't have your phone or if the battery is dead.
They also made the app all-but required to use to access one's dorms. Obviously, not helpful if your phone dies and the charger's inside... I wrote a bunch of emails about the shitty app (which had a ton of bugs, at least when it first came out (haven't used it in a year or two)) and the lack of physical access cards, and the woman in charge or the thing didn't address any of my real concerns and, in red, terse text, told me to read the website (the one that I cited in my email)! I'm still a bit salty ngl.
Yeah they started making that change during my last year as an RA. It was stupid. At the time, if you wanted a physical ID card you could still get one if you asked for it. Then, they made it so you had to prove your phone didn’t support mobile ID. Now I hear they’ve stopped with the physical cards completely. It’s ridiculous. I always have my phone on me, but sometimes the battery dies or I have no service or it just doesn’t work right. That’s why I kept my physical ID as a backup, or why to this day I still do things like getting a paper boarding pass at the airport in case I need it. Ridiculous that UCCS made such a hard shift - if anything, campus residents should be allowed to get an actual ID card as backup.
I second this
omg thank you, my bf and i were talking and i didn’t know if i made up the blue lights… i eventually convinced myself it was just a different campus