The Virginian-Pilot
©
NORFOLK
The Old Dominion University Police Department has withdrawn its application to renew its state accreditation, blaming paperwork lapses.
The department has reassigned to different duties the person responsible for keeping the records, such as documentation in writing and photos of the working condition of equipment on designated days, as required by the Virginia Law Enforcement Professional Standards Commission, said Michelle Falck, a university spokeswoman.
"It wasn't that the department wasn't doing what it was supposed to be doing," said Gary Dillon, program manager for the commission.
ODU's Police Department - 50 officers plus 70 security guards - earned the accreditation in 2001 and was reaccredited in 2005, Falck said Wednesday. It was one of four Virginia college departments to have it, along with those at the College of William and Mary, Virginia Commonwealth University and Radford University.
"It is a voluntary accreditation," Falck said. "I think it's a point of pride more than anything else. Practically speaking, we'll continue to do what we've done."
ODU must remove references to being accredited and then wait one year to reapply, Dillon said. Falck said university police put a team to work to catch up its records and planned to reapply as soon as it could.
Assessment teams of outside law enforcement experts review the records, which document compliance with about 800 requirements reflecting "best practices" in each of four years, Dillon said. In Virginia, 77, or 18 percent, of more than 400 eligible agencies have the state accreditation.
Matthew Bowers, (757) 222-3893, matthew.bowers@pilotonline.com
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odu police would not have earned their accreditation
I honestly do not believe that our police would have earned their accreditation for the next four years, had they applied for it. As a student, I watched as our police force severly lapsed over the past year. The first two years of my college career, I felt generally safe and protected. Last year I refused to walk to friends houses, even 1 block away if it was about to become dusk. There were more robberies, stick-ups, break-ins, sexual assaults, and deaths last year exclusively than had I combined my entire college career. ODU is no longer safe and should not receive this certificate if they can not hold their campus safety to the degree required.
security
sounds to me that ODU needs to put a bid out to hire additional guards to help secure the campus, especially during athletic events. If they want to continue to grow their student base, they need to insure that it is a safe campus for students and visitors.
Maybe !
Maybe the Chief was too busy at the NOBLE conference in downtown Norfolk.
It is very serious.
ODU doesn't have enough personnel on its police force. A school the size of ODU with a 19,000 seat football stadium should have about 200 police. When a football game is taking place with all the seats filled, the stadium should have about 100 police on hand.
That would leave the rest of the campus unprotected since at any given moment, at least 75% of the police is off duty.
When that first football game is played, make sure you have insurance for your belongings and make sure you are away from campus.
Very Serious?
Don't worry there will be more than 100 cops on hand I'm sure for the first football game. You will probably see Norfolk PD among others lending a hand to the University. If I may ask? How do you know at any given moment 75% of them are off duty, do you know someone who works there or are you just guessing? I'm sure the latter. You are advising everyone to stay away from the University on the day of the first game, but I'm sure you will be somewhere around the area with a beer in your hand. ODU Police were handling their business long before football even thought about returning...
To the miss informed out
To the miss informed out there who are obviously NOT Police Officers. ODU Police Department losing its accreditation simply means the records regarding how the department operates needed updating. It in no way reflects the ability or the integrity of the Police Officers and security guards that work to keep the campus safe. As anyone knows, ODU is a very large campus thus the need for 50 Police Officers and 70 security guards, not to mention the department is obviously run by top notch professionals or else the department would not have been accredited in the first place.
As for the comment about officers being off campus and in the surrounding neighborhoods, there are a large number of students that live in those neighborhoods and the officers answer a fair amount of calls for service in those same neighborhoods. Also, if you see an ODU Police Officer in Ghent or anywhere else food or drink is served remember, they get hungry too!
If you feel like ODU Police Officers are not doing their jobs or hanging out at Dunkin' Donuts or wasting taxpayer dollars, the next time you get into an accident, your boyfriend is stalking you or you become the victim of a serious crime,
Misinformed cont...
Call anyone BUT the Police and see how fast they get there and your crying about all that unnecessary manpower will probably go away too. I am not a Police Officer, I just respect them and the very difficult job they have and you should too. So the next time you see one, go up and thank him or her. And while your at it, go back and check to see how many Police Departments in Virginia were even good enough to be accredited then let us know if ODU Police are "up to snuff".
To the poster who typed " I was talking to one of yall", sorry but that is not proper grammer, maybe you need to stay awake in English class.
50 Officers and 70 Security people!
Where are all these employees? It is ridiculous they need all this manpower. Most of the time they are off the campus riding around in other neighborhoods. I've seen them as far away as Ghent, Meadowbrook and mostly in Dunkin Doughnuts. They need to be monitoring the Hampton Blvd crosswalks for the stupid students that can't jaywalk the right way. More wasted taxpayer money.
Accreditation?
I didn't even know that "rent-a-badge" even had some type of accreditation.
not rent-a-badge
As the article says, the department has 50 officers. Those are certified law enforcement officers just like our city police. They go to a regional academy that was set up for small organizations and cities that can't justify having their own.