WASHINGTON – Legislation that would create a National Center for Campus Public Safety and a federal grant program exclusively for campus security is one step closer to becoming law after it passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on August 2.
Sponsored by Judiciary Committee Chairman Senator Patrick Leahy, the School Safety and Law Enforcement Improvement Act of 2007 would allow the federal government to spend as much as $50 million on a competitive grant program over the next two years. Money administered by the Department of Justice would go towards emergency communication systems, training and other improvements.
The National Center for Campus Public Safety would serve as a center for training and campus security research as well as a clearinghouse for best practices on emergency response, evacuation and other security issues.
The full Senate also unanimously passed a similar bill called the Higher Education Amendments of 2007. The legislation would create a campus emergency response grant program and amend the Jeanne Clery Act to require that colleges quickly alert the community to any safety threat occurring on campus grounds.
