The University of Denver’s Division of Campus Safety received the CALEA Campus Security Accreditation on Nov. 21.
The Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies Inc., or CALEA, awarded the prestigious accreditation to the department after two years of working toward various compliance standards.
Under the CALEA accreditation program, which is voluntary, campus safety departments must comply with 294 standards in fields such as policies and procedures, crime prevention, organizational management, support services, community advocacy and personnel practices, according to the University of Denver Magazine.
The CALEA assessment team reviewed the university’s Division of Campus Safety in September after the department internally reviewed all of its policies.
With the accreditation, the DU Division of Campus Safety becomes the first private, non-sworn agency to enter CALEA’s Campus Security Accreditation program.
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DU’s Campus Safety officers’ arrest powers are the same as citizen’s arrest powers so anytime someone is placed in handcuffs the Denver Police Department must be called. Officers have the authority to stop people on campus and question them, escort people from campus, issue parking citations on campus and complete the following searches: search by consent, frisk search, health and safety searches, inventory searches, administrative searches and searches for exigent circumstances.
The award was given at the CALEA’s conference in Miami and the department will host a reception for the DU community and its partners in January.
