RSS Feeds
 |
|
|||||||||||||
News » Top Story
Article rated a 0
by 0
users |
Wednesday, September 12, 2007 1:39 PM CDT
Allen, other universities presidents, recommend arming campus police
Lawyers argue judge should reduce bonds in kidnapping case
Mike Young wins Waterloo school seat
Allen, other universities presidents, recommend arming campus police
DISCLAIMER: The Courier provides our story commenting feature in order to solicit feedback, debate and discussion on topics of local interest. Please keep in mind that civility is a necessary component of productive conversation. All blatantly inflammatory or otherwise inappropriate comments (i.e. vulgarity, marketing, etc.) are subject to rejection and/or removal. Comments will appear if and when they are approved. For a more in-depth explanation of our policy, please see our Rules of the Road. Thanks for reading, and thanks for participating.
Allen, other universities presidents, recommend arming campus police
By EMILY CHRISTENSEN, Courier Staff Writer
CEDAR FALLS --- Presidents at all of Iowa's three state universities, inlcuding University of Northern Iowa President Benjamin Allen, have recommended that sworn and certified officers on their campuses should be authorized to carry firearms as standard equipment on duty.
The recommendations, which were turned into the Board of Regents office earlier this week, were made public today. According to the letter written by Allen, his recommendation does come with some stipulations.
Allen said UNI DPS officers should be required to requalify in the use of firearms at least twice a year and should continue with annual training on topics such as understanding and appreciating diversity issues, conflict resolution and community-oriented policing. Also, he has requeseted that the UNI DPS and UNI Public Safety Advisory Committee need to establish a more transparent external review process of all situations where a campus officer draws or fires a weapon.
"The goal of any recommendation, with respect to protocols concerning campus security, should be to increase the safety of the students, faculty, staff, parents and visitors. The input from students, and from parents, strongly suggests they prefer campus police officers be armed. They indicated that students and others on campus would perceive the campus to be safer if the police officers were armed. This general view was shared by all of the leadership groups contacted, except the Faculty Senate and the United Faculty Central Committee," Allen wrote.
Dave Zarifis, UNI's director of public safety, said he appreciates the support of the university presidents.
"This has been a long process and is an issue that takes a lot of thought and effort from the entire campus community," Zarifis said.
The Board of Regents is expected to make its decision on the issue next week in Council Bluffs.
Read more about this story in Thursday's Courier.
Contact Emily Christensen at (319) 291-1570 or emily.christensen@wcfcourier.com.
The recommendations, which were turned into the Board of Regents office earlier this week, were made public today. According to the letter written by Allen, his recommendation does come with some stipulations.
Allen said UNI DPS officers should be required to requalify in the use of firearms at least twice a year and should continue with annual training on topics such as understanding and appreciating diversity issues, conflict resolution and community-oriented policing. Also, he has requeseted that the UNI DPS and UNI Public Safety Advisory Committee need to establish a more transparent external review process of all situations where a campus officer draws or fires a weapon.
"The goal of any recommendation, with respect to protocols concerning campus security, should be to increase the safety of the students, faculty, staff, parents and visitors. The input from students, and from parents, strongly suggests they prefer campus police officers be armed. They indicated that students and others on campus would perceive the campus to be safer if the police officers were armed. This general view was shared by all of the leadership groups contacted, except the Faculty Senate and the United Faculty Central Committee," Allen wrote.
Dave Zarifis, UNI's director of public safety, said he appreciates the support of the university presidents.
"This has been a long process and is an issue that takes a lot of thought and effort from the entire campus community," Zarifis said.
The Board of Regents is expected to make its decision on the issue next week in Council Bluffs.
Read more about this story in Thursday's Courier.
Contact Emily Christensen at (319) 291-1570 or emily.christensen@wcfcourier.com.
 |
More Stories from News » Top Story
Lawyers argue judge should reduce bonds in kidnapping caseMike Young wins Waterloo school seatAllen, other universities presidents, recommend arming campus police
Anthony wrote on Sep 12, 2007 2:28 PM:
" But they are NOT rent-a-cops, they have the same training and certifications as any other police officers in the state. No need to put them down. "
UNIstaff wrote on Sep 12, 2007 3:20 PM:
" Considering the POLICE OFFICERS at UNI, Iowa and ISU are certified LE officers and have gone through firearms training and probably do train on an anual basis, I am sure it "comes naturally" to them too! Leave it to the uninformed to assume the officers are not able to handle this. For the 100th time THEY HAVE ALL ATTENDED THE IOWA LAW ENFORCEMENT ACADEMY. Trainined side by side next to the so called real police or big boys. If you check with the Iowa, ISU and UNI I am sure some officers have come from armed departments as well as military back grounds. Do you think you think they are fresh out of high school??? Do your homework and check to see what type of individuals are protecting these communities. Considering Iowa, ISU and UNI are larger than many communities in Iowa it's a shame see these police called rent a cops, obviously "Joe" needs to do his research. Support these officers who may finally be given the equipment they need to do their job!
"
Newswatcher wrote on Sep 12, 2007 11:26 PM:
" Joe, do you think you did your fact-finding and research before you made your comment about these campus police? It appears not, you must be slipping, fact guy. "
olof wrote on Sep 18, 2007 11:25 AM:
" Joe, what about the "security officers" who work for the armored car companies? Are they in the rent a cop catagory as well? After all, they carry guns and they are not certified...funny you think that certified LEO's should not. "
grammainiowa wrote on Sep 18, 2007 2:56 PM:
" Rent-a-Cops' are people that sit at the door like they do at GMAC Mortgage Corporation and establishments such as that. Possibly a night watchman.
These men are professionals and need to be armed.
Some of you 'nays' seem to think that once they get that gun they are going to go crazy with it. NOT!
They will use common sense along with the professional training that they received. "
Steady wrote on Sep 19, 2007 8:05 AM:
" It is no wonder there is so much misinformation out there because people speak about things as though they know, but don't. I was approached and asked what I thought about arming those security guards, after some time talking I found out they were talking about the UNI Police. It is like beating a dead horse here. We are not talking about Pinkerton, Mall Security or even a college that does have security officers (Like Wartburg College, their patch says Wartburg Security). These are certified law enforcement officers that happen to work on a college campus and their community they protect happens to be students. They perform the same duties as any other police officer, deputy, trooper, DNR officer and DOT officer in the State of Iowa. You would not think about removing firearms from any of the other officers, so are these officers denied the tools to protect themselves and others? "
Due to the amount of spam and negative comments received, the Courier implement a registered-user system for participation in the comment portion of our site. In doing so, the Courier reserves the right to ban any user(s) at any time without notice if we feel they are not following the terms of agreement.
DISCLAIMER: The Courier provides our story commenting feature in order to solicit feedback, debate and discussion on topics of local interest. Please keep in mind that civility is a necessary component of productive conversation. All blatantly inflammatory or otherwise inappropriate comments (i.e. vulgarity, marketing, etc.) are subject to rejection and/or removal. Comments will appear if and when they are approved. For a more in-depth explanation of our policy, please see our Rules of the Road. Thanks for reading, and thanks for participating.
~ADVERTISEMENT~
NEWS |
SPORTS |
COMMUNITY |
BUSINESS |
ENTERTAINMENT |
FEATURES |
OPINIONS |
OBITUARIES |
CLASSIFIEDS |
PRIVACY POLICY |
CONTACT US |
CARRIER PAGES
|
(return of) joe wrote on Sep 12, 2007 1:49 PM: