Higher education is entering a transformative period in campus safety. After nearly two decades in this field, I’ve never seen a moment where technology, culture, compliance expectations, and institutional risk have converged this sharply. As we move into 2026, the most impactful trends will be the ones that strengthen trust, enhance resilience, and modernize the way we protect learning environments.
Based on national patterns emerging across Campus Safety Magazine’s reporting, International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators (IACLEA) conversations, vendor innovation cycles, and what I see daily on campuses, the following trends represent the direction our field is truly heading.
1. Belonging-Driven, Customer-Centric Policing Becomes the Dominant Campus Model
For years, campus safety leaders have talked about community policing. In 2026, we shift from community policing to belonging-driven safety: a model where officers function not only as responders but as service ambassadors who shape the student experience.
Related Article: How to Recruit Campus Police and Security Officers
Across the country, student perception studies increasingly show that “feeling safe” is tied more to approachability and positive officer interactions than to enforcement. Campus Safety Magazine’s 2024 and 2025 surveys echoed this sentiment, with respondents rating communication, empathy, and visibility as top factors influencing trust.
Universities are responding. Many are now:
- Embedding customer-service training into academy programs
- Setting measurable service expectations for safety staff
- Incorporating student feedback loops into performance evaluations
- Aligning campus safety more closely with student-facing auxiliary services
In practice, this means reimagining officer presence. It means officers who are trained to create psychological safety, not just physical safety. It means operational decisions, response models, dispatch standards, complaint handling, and patrol strategies, are rooted in how they support belonging.
This shift isn’t theoretical. It’s visible at institutions prioritizing retention and connection. As belonging emerges as a core student success metric, safety teams in 2026 will be required to lead from a service-first posture that reinforces trust, comfort, and human connection.
2. AI-Enhanced Physical Security Evolves from “Nice to Have” to Essential Risk Infrastructure
Artificial intelligence (AI) has moved past marketing hype. In 2026, it will become a foundational component of higher education safety ecosystems.
Related Article: 2025 Year-in-Review: AI’s Impact on Campus Security Technology
Every major vendor, Genetec, Motorola, Verkada, Avigilon, Axon, to name a few, has already shifted its development roadmap toward analytics, automated alerting, and integrated intelligence. The Department of Homeland Security’s 2024 guidance emphasized AI’s potential for behavioral anomaly detection, and dozens of campuses are piloting these systems today.
While not a replacement for human judgment, AI now supports:
- Real-time threat detection and automated dispatch triggers
- Intelligent access control patterns
- Drone-assisted situational awareness
- GPS-tagged asset protection, including high-risk items like master key sets
- Pre-incident event modeling and virtual site surveys
Where institutions get into trouble is adopting technology without operational planning. In 2026, the successful agencies will be the ones that:
- Build ethical AI transparency frameworks
- Train dispatchers and officers on augmented workflows
- Deploy analytics gradually to avoid alarm fatigue
- Establish clear data governance and retention standards
AI is no longer futuristic; it’s becoming a risk-management infrastructure, driven in part by insurance carriers tightening expectations around physical security controls. The campuses that adopt AI thoughtfully will be the ones that strengthen prevention, speed up response, and gain institutional confidence in their security posture.
3. Compliance Culture Matures: Clery Shifts from Annual Obligation to Daily Discipline
Clery compliance has undergone more scrutiny in the last three years than in the decade before it.
Federal oversight has increased, fines have grown, and many highly visible institutions have faced public audits following misclassification or delayed warnings. Campus Safety Magazine’s regulatory reporting consistently highlights the complexity digital campuses face: decentralized reporting, increased behavioral incidents, and blurred boundaries between campus and community.
As a result, 2026 brings a shift from reactive compliance to an embedded, year-round compliance culture. Institutions are moving toward:
- centralized reporting and case management platforms
- daily log automation
- multi-year compliance improvement plans
- cross-functional Clery governance groups
- monthly, not annual, validation of data integrity
This evolution aligns with broader higher education trends in enterprise risk management. General counsel offices and risk managers increasingly view Clery as part of the institutional duty of care, not simply regulatory paperwork.
Watch Now: The Stop Campus Hazing Act: Key Implementation Trends That Could Impact Clery Act Compliance
The campuses that thrive in 2026 will be those that treat compliance as an operational discipline equal to patrol or investigations. Institutions must train departments on consistent classification, strengthen documentation practices, and develop transparent communication frameworks for safety warnings and emergency notifications.
Compliance is not becoming easier. But with structure, technology, and culture in place, it can become far more predictable and far less disruptive, and ultimately more protective of the community.
4. Workforce Evolution Accelerates: Emotional Intelligence, BJJ-Based Control Techniques, and Interdisciplinary Response Teams
The campus safety workforce is undergoing a fundamental transformation. Recruitment challenges, mental health demands, and changing student expectations are pushing departments to prioritize emotional intelligence, service orientation, and modern de-escalation science.
Related Article: 8 in 10 Campus Public Safety Departments Don’t Have Enough Officers, New Survey Reveals
A growing number of departments nationwide are integrating Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) into defensive tactics programs. Early studies cited by municipal agencies show significant reductions in officer and subject injuries when BJJ-based control techniques are introduced. While research is still emerging in higher education specifically, the early adopters report better confidence, improved decision-making under stress, and fewer force-related complaints.
Alongside defensive tactics modernization, agencies are expanding:
- trauma-informed response
- communication and empathy-based training
- officer wellness programs
- early intervention support
- integrated crisis response with counseling, CARE teams, and residence life partners
Students increasingly want officers who can navigate complexity, communicate clearly, and regulate their own stress responses. Universities also need officers who can collaborate across auxiliary units such as dining, housing, transportation, and athletics, especially during large events or emergencies.
Related Article: How Trauma-Informed Campus Policing Can Make Investigations More Effective
In 2026, the campus police officer profile will evolve from traditional enforcement specialist to interdisciplinary safety professional, capable of balancing protection, service, communication, and emotional intelligence with technical proficiency and tactical readiness.
5. Campus Resilience Becomes a Strategic Priority: Integrated Continuity, Multi-Unit Playbooks and AI-Supported Emergency Decision-Making
Campuses are managing more disruptions than ever with cyber outages, severe weather swings, protests, infrastructure failures, and large-scale events that rival small-city operations. FEMA and higher ed risk groups have increasingly emphasized continuity planning, not just emergency response.
In 2026, institutions will begin formalizing:
- continuity response teams
- weather decision frameworks enhanced by predictive modeling
- scenario-based operational playbooks
- multi-unit coordination across housing, dining, transportation, IT, athletics, and safety
- pre-planned communication templates and stakeholder maps
Campus Safety Magazine has shown growing interest in this topic, covering not only emergency response but also operational continuity and institutional resilience as key leadership priorities.
Universities now expect campus safety leaders to:
- anticipate failure points
- coordinate cross-departmental resources
- maintain operational readiness during prolonged disruptions
- design scalable frameworks that ensure academic continuity and student support
This is a shift from “incident response” to a resilience mindset, and 2026 is the year higher education formalizes that expectation.
Campus Public Safety Agencies Focus on Protection and Empowerment
Campus safety is evolving quickly, but not unpredictably. Across the country, we see a clear pattern: institutions want safer campuses, stronger trust, smarter tools, more transparent compliance, and resilient infrastructure. These trends reflect not just where the field is today, but where it is undeniably headed.
As campus safety professionals, our challenge and our responsibility are to embrace these shifts with intention. By adopting belonging-centered models, deploying AI thoughtfully, strengthening compliance culture, modernizing our workforce, and institutionalizing resilience, we can create campuses that are not only protected, but truly empowered to thrive.
Anthony Pluretti is director of public safety at Loyola University Maryland. He previously served as executive director of campus safety at Widener University and was named Campus Safety’s Higher Education Director of the Year in 2022.
Note: The views expressed by guest bloggers and contributors are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, Campus Safety.