Campus security systems and effectiveness

Security

In general, College and University campuses throughout the country are extremely open and accessible to the public. While this setting is needed in the facilitation of learning, it also makes college campuses extremely vulnerable as it relates to security issues. In the wake of the recent college campus shooting at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia a great deal of attention has been placed on security on college campuses. The purpose of this discussion is to examine the poor security that exists on college campuses.

According to a CBS News report all American colleges have poor security by virtue of their openness. The openness of these campuses allows anyone to enter the campus anytime that they wish. In addition, to the general public having access to these campuses, the size of many campuses also makes them difficult to secure ("Campus Rampage Turns Focus...").

Additionally, the civil liberties and constitutional rights afforded Americans can make college campuses and public universities in particular, vulnerable to criminals. According to Skeet (2007) laws related to privacy and search and seizure make it impossible for universities to install cameras in areas of the campus that are most vulnerable. In the case of Virginia Tech and other College campuses privacy laws made it impossible for officials to share mental health information about students that were mentally disturbed. Such privacy laws impeded upon the ability of officials to properly protect other students.

The aforementioned factors combined with the fact that many college campuses do not have an adequate amount of police officers, results in the poor security situation that exist at many universities. The inadequacy in the size of many campus police departments is due in part to the drastic increase in the number of students enrolled in colleges. According to an article found in College Student Journal "there has been enormous growth in the number of students attending colleges and universities along with an increase in campus crime during the past 25 years. In fact, some large campuses with enrollments exceeding 30,000 have crime problems comparable to small cities (Smith, 1995; Griffith et al., 2004; pg 150)."

Additionally there has also been an enlargement in the diversity that exist on college campuses as it relates to race, gender, ethnicity, religious affiliation, age, and sexual orientation (Griffith et al., 2004). As such there is an increased need for campus police and administrators to understand the unique challenges that face all of these communities.

In addition, campus police also have the additional challenge of having to deal with an increased number of students that suffer from psychological problems. Campus security must be able to deal with these issues in a timely and efficient manner if college campuses are to be safe.