UCPD officers are committed to community policing, and through their efforts in our “Neighborhood Beat Officer” (NBO) program, and our “Community Concerns” problem-solving structure, they have established strong and lasting relationships with UCR students, faculty and staff. An important outcome from this approach has been the development and maintenance of partnerships and collaborations with campus offices, groups and organizations, such as: Chicano Student Programs, Asian Pacific Student Programs, African Student Programs, Alumni Association, Associated Students (ASUCR), Student Life and Leadership, Honors Program, Women’s Resource Center, and several fraternities and sororities.

Our officers are also involved in programs that touch the lives of local families and neighborhoods. One noteworthy example is the “Annual Eastside Soccer Clinic.” In its eighth year, this is a multi-agency community-policing enterprise, which was conceived of and implemented by a UCPD officer. The clinic is organized and staffed by peace officers from UCPD, Riverside PD, Corona PD, Riverside Sheriff’s Department and the California Highway Patrol, as well as UCR students and staff. The program provides an all-day soccer clinic for economically disadvantaged youth from the poor neighborhoods of Riverside’s “Eastside” (near UCR), and also serves such children from nearby County areas, and from poorer sections of the City of Corona. Parents are required to attend informal “classes” while the children play soccer. These classes are offered in a bi-lingual format, and the topics always relate to child/family safety and to education (with an emphasis on how to help kids prepare to attend college).

Another significant element of our outreach activities is related to our efforts to recruit university affiliates into the police department. Fifteen of our current staff of 24 “sworn officers” (62.5%) possess at least a four-year college degree. Twelve are UC graduates, and 11 of those attended UCR. When combined with our student employees (Community Service Officers – CSOs), this creates a large pool of UCPD staff who have a great sense of ownership about our campus, and who enter our department with strong existing ties to the institution and community.

Patrol Services currently operates on a 9/80 work schedule. This type of patrol deployment creates an overlap on each of our shifts. Currently we have 14 police officers assigned to campus patrol, consisting of three sergeants and 11 police officers. During 2004, the department anticipates filling 3 patrol officer positions funded under a federal grant.

A sergeant is assigned to each of the three patrol shifts. Sergeants are responsible for supervising all on-duty staff, coordinating community oriented policing activities, establishing directed patrol priorities, and assisting the community in areas of concern. Patrol Services handles all initial calls for service, including crimes in progress, past crimes, traffic, civil matters, as well as delivering presentations and addressing general law enforcement activities.

A large part of an officer’s job involves community oriented policing and directed patrol. This provides the community with more personalized service and insures that officers are meeting with citizens, and working with them to solve their problems and resolve their issues. Each officer is assigned a particular campus building or department for which regular contacts and liaisons are established. This Neighborhood Beat Officer program (NBO) continues to be a critical part of our commitment to community service.

The University Neighborhood Enhancement Team (UNET), a joint UCPD/City of Riverside Police Department (RPD) community policing effort, has been in operation for ten years. One sergeant and four police officers from each department are assigned full-time to the team. The UNET “beat” is the 17.5 square mile area surrounding the UCR campus.

Our officers plan, organize and carry out community activities such as school safety fairs, child safety seat checkpoints, neighborhood watch, and crime prevention seminars. Officers work with the community to identify problems, and then create projects to combat them, such as saturation DUI patrols, parole/probation sweeps, and undercover prostitution and theft stings.

UNET officers use a variety of patrol methods, including radio cars, foot patrol and bicycle patrol. The UNET bicycle patrol program has proven to be effective and popular in the community. UNET’s office is located in the University Village (UV) shopping and entertainment center complex. UV is located adjacent to the campus, and is a popular “hang-out” well patronized by the campus community.

UNET has three main community outreach efforts. These are: Crime Free Multi Housing, the Neighborhood Beat Officer (NBO) program, and the Local Business Liaison program. Each officer is responsible for a number of apartment complexes, at least one small neighborhood area and several businesses in the UNET beat area. Officers serve as problem solvers for their assigned groups and neighborhoods, and maintain their association with them throughout their assignment to the team.

The Crime Free Multi Housing (CFMH) program is directed at the private apartment complexes in the campus area. CFMH teaches apartment owners and managers how to keep their complexes freer of crime and safer for their residents. Without CFMH certification, UCR Housing Administration will not refer students to a private apartment complex - a powerful incentive for the local managers and owners to get involved.

The Neighborhood Beat Officer program puts an officer in charge of a neighborhood area where he/she serves as the problem solver for that street or block. Current efforts are focused on traffic concerns, home security and working with UCR students to be good neighbors while living in local neighborhoods.

The Local Business Liaison program gives individual officers the responsibility of being the problem solvers for a specific group of businesses. Officers have used this program to assist businesses in making their locations more secure. They have also worked with the owners in developing robbery prevention programs, and to address issues related to underage alcoholic beverage and tobacco purchases.

Our Investigations Bureau consists of three detectives responsible for investigating crimes and providing follow-up assistance to victims. The detectives work closely with local, regional, state, and federal law enforcement agencies toward the successful resolution of cases and prosecution of criminals. These relationships foster the regular sharing of information, which can include crime trends, known suspects, similar cases, and even issues related to national security.

Most of our criminal cases do not involve students as suspects. On those rare occasions when a student is a suspect, our detectives can sometimes attempt to add the resources of the Campus Judicial Affairs Office to the investigative process. The Judicial Affairs Office has clout and corrective and/or disciplinary options that are separate and different from the criminal justice system and courts.

The department employs one full-time crime prevention detective, whose responsibilities include delivery of safety and educational presentations, analysis of crime trends, conducting security inspections and assessments, participation in orientation programs (student, parent and staff), liaison with allied agencies, consultations regarding special events and VIP visits (and development of associated department operations plans).

Another important aspect of our crime prevention efforts is the timely communication of crime related information to the campus community. We use several methods to meet this responsibility.

• The campus “Scotmail” system for sending crime bulletins and other crime prevention information, via e-mail, to the community. “Scotmail” is delivered to campus staff, faculty, and all UCR students with campus e-mail accounts.
• Our website (http://www.police.ucr.edu), which contains information about the department, safety, crime prevention, crime statistics, a press log and crime bulletins.
• The UCR student newspaper (“The Highlander”), runs a weekly column entitled “The Rap Sheet”, which highlights police activities for the previous week.

Our newest crime prevention program was implemented to address a common problem found on most college campuses: bicycle thefts. As our enrollment has grown, so has our bike theft problem. In January of 2004, the UCPD Bicycle Licensing and Registration Program was implemented. Bicycle licensing and registration increases the likelihood of a stolen bicycle being found and returned. It may also deter theft by making it known to bike thieves that the bicycle is registered with the UCPD. Since we issue State of California Bicycle Licenses, any police officer can determine the ownership of a registered bicycle, or even if the bicycle has been reported stolen, by checking the California Bicycle License number through the state system. A licensed bicycle also provides a means of identifying accident victims, especially children, who typically carry no form of identification. Licenses are recognized statewide and renewals are valid for three years.

Our Community Service Officer (CSO) program continues to shoulder many responsibilities. The Night Watch program provides continuing nighttime patrols of the core campus buildings with CSOs, who report crimes in progress, suspicious persons, hazardous situations, and security discrepancies. CSOs provide patrols in the residence halls, family student housing and university-owned apartment complexes. CSOs routinely provide evening hours escorts for students, staff and faculty to areas surrounding the campus. They also handle on-campus escorts when the Campus Safety Escort Service is unavailable. We also employ CSOs for other “paraprofessional” assignments (e.g., helping with activities related to bicycle registrations, logging lost and found property, etc.).

Our goal is to ensure the greatest possible level of preparedness for man-made or natural disaster.

Certainly, a great concern for our entire country is the threat of terrorism. For law enforcement, this requires us to make strong efforts to stay properly informed. We receive regular briefings from regional, state and federal agencies on current threat levels and alerts regarding potential terrorist activity. We maintain both formal and informal working relationships with groups related to domestic preparedness, such as: the Federal Department of Justice Infraguard, the local Joint Terrorism Task Force, the regional Terrrorism Early Warning Group, the County Bioterrorism Advisory Committee, the campus Institutional Biosafety Committee, and the campus Anti-Terrorism Group.

To address our responsibilities within the campus preparedness scheme, we are founding and active members of the campus Emergency Management Task Force; our seismically hardened facility acts as the campus Emergency Operations Center; we have partnered within the campus on the acquisition of Homeland Security grants; and we participate in regional emergency planning activities and exercises. In addition, our department provides domestic preparedness information and materials to the campus community on topics such as mailroom security, and nuclear, biological and chemical threats in the workplace.