Community Policing
The University of North Dakota Police Department is dedicated to a total departmental commitment to community policing. Every member of the department, sworn and non sworn, will be involved in the department's community oriented policing philosophy.
Departmental Philosophy: The University of North Dakota Police Department's philosophy toward community oriented policing is a way of thinking and an organizational structure that allows the department and the university community to work closely together in new ways to solve the problems of crime, illicit drugs, fear of crime, physical and social disorder, and to enhance the overall quality of life in the University of North Dakota community.
Purpose: For the department to be both proactive and reactive in the response to crime in the University of North Dakota community.
Objective: To better serve the people in the community by use of immediate and long term proactive problem solving through continuous, sustained contact with members of the university community utilizing the duties and activities listed in this program.
Goals: To eliminate crime in the University of North Dakota community and to better serve the university community by working with the people, in partnership, to combat crime.
General Duties and Activities: In order to fulfill the purpose, goals, and objectives of the University of North Dakota Police Department's community oriented policing philosophy, departmental employees will participate in several general duties and activities. Each employee will participate according to their individual state job classification and departmental policies. For example, patrol officers will participate in bicycle and foot patrols. Office personnel will participate in other aspects of the department's community oriented policing philosophy such as the publication of police informational pamphlets. In one way or another, all employees of the University of North Dakota Police Department will be involved in the community policing philosophy.
General duties and activities of the department's community oriented policing philosophy will include, and not be limited to, the following:
Alcohol Awareness Programs, DUI, MIC, and MIP Enforcement
The department uses both a proactive and reactive approach to addressing the problems of under aged drinking and drunk driving. Using a proactive approach selected police officers from the department go out to various segments of the university community and provide educational programs regarding the problems associated with alcohol abuse and misuse and its relationship to crimes such as drunk driving. In a reactive approach to this problem university police officers arrest approximately one hundred drunk drivers each year and cite numerous violators for minor in consumption and minor in possession of alcohol.
Bicycle and Foot Patrols
Bicycle and Foot patrols will be conducted by police officers when weather and manpower conditions permit. The purpose of these patrols will be to deter crime and better enable the officers to be in contact with the people they serve in the community. During these patrols, officers are encouraged to visit with members of the community to enlist their help and to educate them about crime prevention.
Blue Emergency Lights with Telephones
Blue emergency lights with telephones have been placed in thirteen locations around the university community for use by the public. Police Officers respond whenever these lights are activated.
Bomb Threat Seminars
In cooperation with the University Housing Department, the University of North Dakota Police Department provides information on an occasional basis about the department and its services to the Housing Department which, in turn, places the information in its newsletter. This better enables housing residents to be informed about the University of North Dakota Police Department and potential or on-going crime problems in the university area.
Career Forums
The University of North Dakota Police participates annually in several career forums and ride along programs to assist students interested in Law enforcement.
The Career Centers at Grand Forks Central and Red River High School provide career resources and opportunities for all high school students in the Grand Forks School District. Career Forums are similar to group job shadows where students sign up for one or more career fields to get an insight of that profession and to help them decide if they want to pursue that field. The Career Coordinator identifies ten professions and sets up dates and times with the local business so that students can sign up and take an opportunity to tour the business, listen to different occupations, observe, and at times, do hands on projects with questions and answers to follow.
Source:4MyFuture
Child ID Programs
Upon request university police officers participate in child ID programs on campus and in the surrounding community.
Community Presentations About Community Policing
The department participates in the University Within the University program by offering, upon request, presentations to inform the community about the national movement towards the community policing philosophy, the department's efforts towards adopting that philosophy and how members of the university community can assist their campus police in fighting crime on campus.
Conflict Resolution Training
University of North Dakota Police Officers receive certified training from the University of North Dakota's Conflict Resolution Center to better enable them to understand the reasons for conflict between people and how to deal with the conflict. This provides the officers an alternate method of dispute resolution beyond their regular police training and enhances their ideas of community policing.
Crime Alert Notices
During periods of high criminal activity or the potential for criminal activity, the department publishes crime alert notices. These notices are posted throughout campus to advise members of the community of potential or on-going problems with some type of criminal activity. Housing personnel assist in the posting of these notices in the UND housing areas.
Crime Prevention Programs
The department utilizes police officers in crime prevention programs on a regular basis. Officers obtain and distribute crime prevention materials and participate in local crime prevention programs. These programs include such things as rape awareness presentations by university police officers and McGruff programs sponsored by the Grand Forks Sheriff's Department and the university police. These types of duties are often done in conjunction with other local law enforcement agencies, thus promoting the idea of cooperation between various law enforcement agencies in the area and presenting a combined proactive response to crime.
Defensive Driving Instruction
In an effort to reduce the number of traffic accidents in the university area and throughout the state the department has officers assigned to instruct defensive driver training that is coordinated through the University Safety Officer and is approved by the North Dakota Safety Council and National Safety Council.
Drug Task Force
The department cooperates with the state and local drug task force by providing it with information and permitting the task force to use its facilities to conduct investigations and interviews.
Escort Program
The Department provides escorts for members of the campus community who have concerns for their personal safety. This program is governed by the departmental policy and is performed by the department's police and security officers.
Fingerprinting Services
At the request of people affiliated with the University of North Dakota campus, police officers take their fingerprints. This includes an agreement made with the UND Education Department in which more than one hundred teacher candidates are fingerprinted each year.
Participation in Expo's and Wellness Fairs
The Department participates in university activities such as wellness fairs and expo's by having a crime prevention and campus police information booth at these events whenever manpower conditions permit. University police officers and other representatives of the department pass out crime prevention and other informational materials at the booth to better inform members of our community about the department's services and how people can better protect themselves from becoming the victims of crime.
Portable Alarm Systems
The department, at the request of members of the university community or when the need arises, places portable alarm systems in apartments, residence halls, offices, or other locations on campus. These alarm systems can be activated by panic buttons or motion detectors and they supplement several permanent alarm systems that are placed at various locations on campus such as the business office and the alumni center.
Property Marker
The department makes available, upon request, a free engraving tool which members of the university community can use to mark their property.
Publication of The University of North Dakota Police Information Card
On an annual basis the department publishes a card that contains information on how to access the department's campus crime statistics, campus police services, and important phone numbers that are posted on the department's World Wide Web pages. This card is distributed across campus and is made available to all UND employees and students.
Regular Meetings with Housing and Dean of Students
To better enable the department to keep in touch with the concerns of the Housing and Dean of Students departments the Chief of Police has meetings with their administrators. From a community policing aspect, these meetings provide the ground work for understanding as to the mission of the University of North Dakota Police Department and how it is here to serve the university community. It also provides the department the opportunity to work closely with the Housing and Dean of Students departments to resolve local problems regarding criminal activity and administrative violations that occur on campus.
Selective Traffic Enforcement
University Police Officers conduct selective moving traffic enforcement in regards to violations such as, but not limited to, speeding in school crossing zones, care required and right-of-way violations.
UND Campus Watch Program
The University Police Department encourages the participation of all members of the campus community in a campus watch program through the use of flyers posted throughout campus and announcements on the UND television station's bulletin board. The purpose of the program is to increase awareness of all members of the university community in regards to their surroundings and what is going on around them in order that they will immediately report any suspicious or criminal activities that they observe to the university police.
Victim Notification
Police Officers, Police Supervisors, and/or the Departmental Investigator notify victims of the status of the criminal investigation they are conducting in accordance with departmental policy. All victims are appraised of any changes in the status of the investigation and are asked for any additional information they can provide to aid in the resolution of the case. Also, upon the request of the Grand Forks County Correctional Center, officers will notify victims of violent crimes of the release on bond of the suspects involved in their cases.