Campus Police

At Penn State, as at many colleges, campus police occupy an unusual and much-misunderstood spot on the law enforcement spectrum — and when scandal breaks, that often leads to questions about divided loyalties. The latest developments in the sex abuse case there have put university's police front and center of some of the most prominent unanswered questions. Did Penn State officers thoroughly and professionally investigate allegations that former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky sexually abused children on campus, only to have their findings quashed by prosecutors and...

Administrators should consider deploying mediators instead of law enforcement at future campus demonstrations and better train school police, a University of California report issued Friday recommended after criticism of the force police used during protests last year. The UC report lists 50 policy recommendations to help guide the 10-campus system's future responses to protests. In general, it calls for a more measured response that relies on more discussion at the beginning of a possible dispute in an effort to avoid the need for police.

SAN FRANCISCO - The University of California, Davis said yesterday that it has placed its police chief on administrative leave amid outrage over widely circulated videos of officers dousing pepper spray on protesting students. In a news release, campus officials said it was necessary to place police Chief Annette Spicuzza on leave to restore trust and calm tensions following Friday's crackdown on the "Occupy UC Davis" encampment, which resulted in 10 arrests. The school previously placed two officers on administrative leave.

By Matt Rocheleau, Town Correspondent Boston University said today it will create a campus crisis center that will focus rape and sexual assault prevention and support for victims of such acts as well as other forms of physical abuse, such as hazing. The announcement came in the wake of two alleged sexual assaults, two reported hazing episodes, and several dormitory shower peeping incidents this academic year. President Robert A. Brown said those recent events "have lent a focus to our discussions" about establishing the center,...

Campus police at the University of Massachusetts Amherst are looking to identify a handful of people allegedly involved in the disturbance after the New England Patriots' Super Bowl loss on Feb. 5, in addition to those already arrested. Rowdy demonstrations after the game ended with the arrests of 13 students and one non-student. The students will face school sanctions as well as criminal charges, officials said. Six pictures posted on the campus police website show a group of people milling about outside, including one...

State Police are calling for the public to be cautious on the Charles River Esplanade after an 18-year-old woman was sexually assaulted early Friday on the public walkway. The woman, a student at a university in Boston — officials did not say which one — reported to her campus police department that she was attacked about 1 a.m. near the Silber Way Footbridge by a man, according to State Police, which issued a joint statement Sunday with the office of District Attorney Daniel F. Conley.

By Matt Rocheleau, Town Correspondent Boston University said today it will create a campus crisis center that will focus rape and sexual assault prevention and support for victims of such acts as well as other forms of physical abuse, such as hazing. The announcement came in the wake of two alleged sexual assaults, two reported hazing episodes, and several dormitory shower peeping incidents this academic year. President Robert A. Brown said those recent events "have lent a focus to our discussions" about establishing...

WORCESTER- A Worcester Polytechnic Institute student accused of raping a female student over the weekend was ordered in Central District Court yesterday to stay away from all college property. Gregory R. Gardner Jr., 22, of 7 Dean St., was arraigned on two counts of rape and one count each of kidnapping and indecent assault and battery on a person over 14. The charges stem from an incident that occurred Saturday night or Sunday morning in the parking lot of Bancroft Tower. Worcester police were notified by WPI campus police at 4:15 a.m....

Police say a shooting at the University of Nevada, Reno within nine hours of a separate but similar incident near campus prompted a four-hour lockdown of dormitories. Campus police chief Adam Garcia says a man who is not a student suffered a gunshot wound to the leg after he was shot Saturday night near the Fleischmann Building. A school police spokesman says the lockdown ended after midnight. Reno police say the second shooting comes nine hours after a burglary attempt on Friday near the campus.

The Bridgewater Police Department has been awarded nearly $114,000 in grants to fund three separate training and enforcement initiatives. Of the total, $27,500 will be used to train and certify the department's officers in emergency medical dispatch; that certification becomes mandatory in July. An $82,000 grant will fund an advanced three-day tactics course for full-time officers in the town Police Department and Bridgewater State University's campus police. Another $5,000 will allow officers to participate in three statewide traffic enforcement events.

PITTSBURGH - Two dozen bomb threats at the University of Pittsburgh, including at least four on Monday, have prompted professors to start holding classes outside and security officials to implement new building access measures and offer a $50,000 reward. The threats began in mid-February. On Monday, four threats had been made by mid-afternoon, starting at about 4 a.m. Students and faculty now need a school ID to get into buildings. Nonresidents will not be permitted in dormitories, and a $50,000 reward is being offered for information.

State Police are calling for the public to be cautious on the Charles River Esplanade after an 18-year-old woman was sexually assaulted early Friday on the public walkway. The woman, a student at a university in Boston — officials did not say which one — reported to her campus police department that she was attacked about 1 a.m. near the Silber Way Footbridge by a man, according to State Police, which issued a joint statement Sunday with the office of District Attorney Daniel F. Conley.

Colleges A psychologist who looked into a 1998 allegation against former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky told police at the time that his behavior fit the profile of a likely pedophile, NBC News reported Saturday. Yet Sandusky was not criminally charged, nor placed on a state registry of suspected child abusers, and prosecutors say he continued assaulting boys for more than a decade until his arrest in November. NBC obtained a copy of the campus police department's investigatory report on an encounter in which Sandusky was accused of having inappropriate...

A Cape Cod Community College student was arrested Monday morning after allegedly bringing a semiautomatic handgun and ammunition onto the West Barnstable campus, authorities said. A college security guard performing a check in a campus parking lot noticed what appeared to be ammunition in the console of a Jeep Wrangler and alerted police, according to a statement from the Barnstable Police Department. Jason P. Whitehead, 22, of South Yarmouth approached the vehicle and told the guard and Barnstable police Officer Kevin Donovan that it belonged to him, the statement said.

CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. - A jury found Virginia Tech negligent on Wednesday for waiting to warn students about a gunman during a 2007 campus massacre that left 33 dead. Jurors deliberated for ½three hours before siding with the parents of two students who were killed on April 16, 2007, in the most deadly mass shooting in modern US history. Their wrongful death civil lawsuit argued that lives could have been spared if school officials had moved more quickly to alert the campus after the first two victims were shot in a dorm.

A University of Maryland student has been arrested and charged with posting an Internet threat claiming he planned to go on a shooting rampage on campus hoping to kill as many people as possible. Campus police said in a statement that 19-year-old Alexander Song of Fulton, Md., has been identified as the person who posted on a website plans for a rampage that would "kill enough people to make it to national news. " The message also warned people to "stay away from the mall. " Police did not elaborate.

As special state police officers, Harvard University police have the power to make arrests and execute search warrants on campus. The student-run Harvard Crimson newspaper says that means that campus police should also be subject to the same disclosure rules as municipal police departments. The state's highest court heard arguments yesterday in the Crimson's lawsuit against Harvard, which seeks to force campus police to turn over arrest records. Harvard says it is not subject to the state's public records laws because it is a private university and its police department is not a public...

CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. - A Virginia Tech official defended the delay in alerting students to two shootings on campus hours before the massacre of 30 others, saying in court Wednesday that officials did the best they could in unprecedented circumstances. Robert M. Byers, executive director of government relations at Virginia Tech, testified at the civil trial brought by the parents of two of the 33 students killed in the April 16, 2007, attack by a gunman who killed himself after the carnage.