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Policing Academia in Illinois: The Evolution of an American Policing Model

NCJ Number
202069
Journal
Journal of Crime & Justice Volume: 26 Issue: 1 Dated: 2003 Pages: 55-70
Author(s)
David N. Falcone; Keith A. Gehrand
Date Published
2003
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This article traces the emergence and evolution of campus policing in Illinois by examining the larger social history that led to campus policing nationally and by exploring the parallel legal and organizational development of two distinct models of campus policing in Illinois as representative patterns.
Abstract
Before Yale University hired its first two New Haven Police Department officers to patrol its campus in 1894, more rudimentary forms of campus policing had been used to control student conduct and protect the campus community against fire, crime, and disorder. The "watchman/custodial" approach to policing the college campus became the dominant model for decades in the United States until the mid- to late-1940's. During the 1950's and beyond, because of the unprecedented growth in student enrollment and the expanded physical size of campuses, the transition to separate security departments from a parent department within the college began in earnest. Much of this sudden growth resulted from the influx of veterans returning from both World War II and the Korean Conflict, under government subsidy. The first attempts at policing the campuses in Illinois were achieved by hiring either off-duty sheriff's deputies, municipal police officers, or security personnel with police authority under the aegis of the sheriff's office. This arrangement existed until the middle of the 20th century. In the 1960's and 1970's, many college administrators opted to "professionalize" their departments of campus security by creating full-fledged police departments sanctioned by State law. By 1963, the Illinois General Assembly passed legislation that gave public universities in the State full police authority as State officers. Through the 1980's and beyond, drug education, prevention, suppression, interdiction, and arrest became a formal part of the responsibilities of campus police departments. Adding to the numerous problems facing the college police department was the persistent crime problem. Currently, across the Nation campus police agencies have begun to shift their focus from the traditional crime-fighting role to a more service-oriented approach, in keeping with the national trend toward community-oriented policing by police agencies at all levels. Campus police have become important members of the growing number of police organizational models within the myriad of policing agencies in the United States. They are also important stakeholders in the community-oriented policing movement as a result of the socially complex nature of the modern collegiate campus community. 53 references

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