The administrative discussion about arming the Department of Campus Safety (DCS) continued at the Board of Trustees meeting last Friday, April 18. The Building and Grounds Committee presented a report compiled by KRW Associates LLC, but they were not ready to make a recommendation one way or the other, according to Vice Chancellor of Business and Financial Affairs Craig Woody.
While a decision was not reached on Friday, the subcommittee will review the issue and present additional information and insight in May.
“We will continue to take this under advisement,” said Woody. “It’s a very important decision and it will clearly be made by the full Board of Trustees. It isn’t a decision that any one person or any one level can make, because it impacts everybody.”
Woody said it was important to hire an outside consulting firm because they can provide expertise that administration cannot. KRW Associates LLC specializes in public sector executive searches and organizational consulting.
The principals of KRW Associates are Lorne C. Kramer, former Chief of Police in Colorado Springs; Fred Rainguet, former Chief of Police in Fort Collins; and Jerry Williams, former Chief of Police in Arvada and Aurora.
“If you’re not already an armed force, you should have the best insight and research available to you from someone who has done it at that level,” said Woody. “They have relationships with city attorneys and they know their counterparts across the country.”
Woody emphasized that the report is only one of several things the board is taking into consideration.
“The ultimate decision must remain with the board,” said Woody. “It’s not the consultant’s decision. They can only give us the pros and cons.”
According to Woody, there are many institutions going in the direction of arming campus safety. After school shootings across the U.S., campuses have responded with their campus safety.
“It’s not a black and white issue,” said Woody. “There are risks associated with doing it, and there are risks associated with not doing it. That’s what the board is taking under consideration now.”
Sgt. Stephen Banet of DCS said that he has heard mixed opinions from the university community about the issue.
“There’s a lot of interest in this,” said Banet. “The question comes up a lot, and I’ve heard both sides. It’s a mixed bag of opinions.”
Woody explained that the decision depends on the university’s expectations for DCS.
“If you want them to have the ability to respond to any incident, you have one answer. If you just want them to observe and report, you have another answer,” he said.
Meanwhile, Banet emphasized the role of DCS as first responders to incidents on campus.
“It makes sense to give the first responders the tools they need to do their jobs,” he said. “We deal with people a lot of times who have warrants for their arrest.
Sometimes they’re armed, not necessarily with guns, but with knives and so on. Those are the kind of people we’re dealing with.”
According to Woody, if the Building and Grounds Committee recommends that the board moves forward with arming DCS, there will be community outreach before a final decision is made.
“I think there’s more work to do as far as soliciting input from across the university community,” said Woody. “If you look at any decision, you want to make sure you have the benefit of as much feedback as possible. You have to make sure that you’ve provided an opportunity for anyone who has an opinion to express it.”
Woody said he believes the board would like to have a recommendation from the subcommittee by June. If the decision is to move forward, they could conduct outreach in the fall when students come back to school, and implement the arming in January.
“The outreach needs to be robust, and there needs to be as many different points of outreach as possible,” said Woody. “You have to take everything into consideration. You’re looking at everybody who constitutes the university community on any given day.”
Banet said he has not heard any new information regarding the process, but Woody said it was unlikely that DCS would be involved in the process after they made their initial recommendation.
“When you have an issue that is controversial, you want to make sure the analysis by outside experts is as objective and independent and thorough as possible,” said Woody. “The process is not framed by Campus Safety. They made a recommendation and now they are letting the board go through their process.”
