University of Maryland Department of Public Safety

The University of Maryland, Baltimore County Police Department is a nationally accredited law enforcement agency servicing a population of 10,628 students and faculty not including daily visitors on over 50 acres (200,000 m2) of campus property and adjoining streets and roadways. The Police Department also employs a number of students as Police Student Marshals. Their main function is to provide campus wide escorts, event security, and to unlock and lock buildings.

Mission
The mission of the University of Maryland Police at College Park is "To serve the university community, protect life and property, and to enforce the law." In this effort, police work with the community in a cooperative community policing effort to prevent crime from occurring and to respond and provide assistance to victims once crime has occurred.

Authority
The Education Article (ED) Section 13-601 of the Annotated Code of Maryland establishes the University of Maryland Police Force. According to this law, University of Maryland Police Officers have all the powers of any peace or police officer in the State. Furthermore, the University of Maryland Police Force is the primary agency responsible for policing property owned, operated, leased by, or under the control of the University of Maryland System. So that we might be better able to provide effective services to our community as a whole, UMPD has entered into a "Concurrent Jurisdiction Agreement" with Prince George's County Police Department (PGPD) that, in addition to our statutory jurisdiction and authority, distributes enforcement authority to University Police Officers in certain areas of Prince George's County. UMPD and PGPD have a mutual and positive working relationship and provide assistance and expertise to each other as needed. Additionally, State law empowers University Police Officers to enforce laws throughout the State of Maryland in many circumstances.

Professionalism
The University of Maryland Police Department is a professional law enforcement organization. The University Police Department employs approximately 75 dedicated men and women who provide a complete array of law enforcement and related services to our community of approximately 60,000 members which includes a student population of approximately 32,700.

Our police officers are State certified in accordance with Article 41, Section 4-201 of the Annotated Code of Maryland and have all the same powers and authority as any other sworn police officer in Maryland; each officer is empowered by State law to make arrests, investigate crimes, and carry firearms. Besides our sworn police officers, UMPD employs approximately 125 Student Police Aides who perform a wide variety of security and related tasks including patrolling the campus on foot and bicycle, providing walking escorts, working as contract security, and providing traffic direction and control at special events.

Services
Uniformed police officers provide services 24 hours a day, seven days a week. These services include: Emergency response to:
 * Crimes in Progress
 * Life Threatening incidents

Foot patrol Patrol with:
 * Marked (23k) Police Cars
 * Unmarked Police Cars
 * Motorcycles (27k)
 * Bicycles (29k)

Crime and incident reporting that routinely provides data to Interested Community Members. Escorts will be handled by Police Officers and the Police Auxiliary

911
The University of Maryland Department of Public Safety at College Park is also the only non-county organization State-wide to operate a full service 911 Emergency Communications Center.

Training
Along with providing traditional law enforcement services, the University of Maryland Police Department at College Park is a leader in education -- both of community members and other law enforcement officers. To combat crime, UMPD offers many crime prevention programs that are available to community members at no cost. Some of these programs include:
 * Alcohol and Other Drug Education
 * Personal Security Presentations
 * Public information
 * Rape Aggression Defense (RAD)
 * Self defense
 * Sexual assault awareness
 * Turtle Watch (a neighborhood watch/engraving program)

Awards
Because of the high quality of crime prevention work undertaken by University Police Officers we were honored to have been selected to receive several awards recently including:
 * 1997 Governor's Outstanding Crime Prevention Award
 * 1997 Mothers Against Drunk Driving Traffic Safety Award
 * 1997 American Society of Industrial Security 1st Place Award Video Competition
 * 1996 Governor's Outstanding Crime Prevention Award
 * 1996 Governor's Crime Prevention Award for State Property Theft Initiative Program
 * 1996 Governor's Crime Prevention Award for the Video "Are You Sure Its Secure"
 * 1996 International Association of Chiefs of Police "Chief's Challenge Awards"
 * 1995 Governor's Outstanding Crime Prevention Award
 * 1994 Governor's Outstanding Crime Prevention Award
 * 1994 National Highway Traffic Safety Award for Greater than 90% Seatbelt Compliance
 * 1994 Maryland State Highway Administration for 100% Seatbelt Compliance
 * 1994 Maryland Chiefs' Challenge Award
 * 1994 Maryland Chief's Challenge Traffic Safety Education and Enforcement Award (also given by the Governor)

Also because of officers' high work quality, UMPD has been fortunate to have been selected to receive more grant funding to conduct traffic safety education and enforcement activities than any other municipal police department in Prince George's County for the past four years.

Police Training Academy
UMDPS is the only university police department in the State and one of a relatively few police departments State-wide to offer a fully certified Entry Level Police Training Academy. Instructors from UMPD who teach in the Academy not only train individuals who will work as officers at UMPD, but also officers from law enforcement jurisdictions from around the State. In addition to the Entrance Level Police Training Academy, UMPD trains individuals from around the State in skills such as:
 * DWI Detection
 * Standardized Field Sobriety Testing
 * Police Motorcycle Training
 * Portable Breath Testing
 * Fake ID Recognition
 * Emergency/Crisis Intervention
 * Suicide and Psychological Emergencies
 * Interpersonal Communication
 * Sexual Harassment
 * Time Management
 * Accident Investigation
 * Firearms
 * Emergency Vehicle Operations
 * First Responder
 * Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR)

Our officers may also be found as instructors and lecturers in courses at UMCP and other institutions of higher education across the region.

Goal
It is the goal of the University of Maryland Police Department to provide to each of our community members the most effective service and protection within our means. It is important, therefore, that the community that we serve has faith in us and is aware of all that its police department has to offer.

Contact Information
University of Maryland Police Department College Park MD 20742 Phone: (301) 405-3555