CS Survey Part 1: 46% of Campus Public Safety Departments Understaffed
Part 1 of Campus Safety magazine’s opinion survey results also show that 41% of campus police and security officers are not paid a fair wage for their duties.
Photo via Flickr (UWW ResNet)
Training, public safety department staffing and pay, as well as active shooter and active bomber response are the biggest areas of concern revealed by CS’ Opinion Survey, which was conducted this fall. With more than 630 campus protection stakeholders responding, 46% of respondents say their public safety/emergency management departments don’t have enough staff to respond appropriately to incidents, and more than a quarter say their campus is not adequately prepared to respond to an active shooter or bomber incident. More than two in five (41%) say their police and/or security officers aren’t paid a fair wage for their duties.
Nearly half (45%) of all of the survey takers say their campus’ general staff don’t receive enough training on how to safely restrain individuals who are harming or might harm themselves or others. Nearly a third of respondents (31%) say their police and/or security officers don’t receive enough training on this issue, while 32% say they don’t get enough instruction on workplace violence.
It’s not all bad news, however. There are some bright spots that deserve attention.
Nearly nine out of 10 survey takers (87%) say their public safety departments’ and institutions’ relationships with agencies from surrounding communities and other jurisdictions are well developed and fully functional. Also, 75% of respondents say their institutions’ top administrators take safety and security seriously.
Over the next few weeks, Campus Safety magazine will be highlighting the results from this year’s survey. This week, we’re featuring your opinions on staffing, pay and morale. Outliers are explained in the captions below the charts. Charts without captions mean that the results are the same or similar in all three sectors.
View PDF version of “2012 Opinion Survey Results: Staffing, Pay & Morale
These and other charts can be viewed in the 2013 Campus Safety Yearbook. To download a pdf, click here.
Related Articles:
- 2011 Salary Survey & Industry Census Results: K-12 Schools & School Districts
- 2011 Hospital Salary Survey & Industry Census Results Revealed
- 2011 Salary Survey & Industry Census Results: Universities
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About the Author
Robin Hattersley, Editor-in-Chief
Robin has been covering the security and campus law enforcement industries since 1998 and is a specialist in school, university and hospital security, public safety and emergency management, as well as emerging technologies and systems integration. She joined CS in 2005 and has authored award-winning editorial on campus law enforcement and security funding, officer recruitment and retention, access control, IP video, network integration, event management, crime trends, the Clery Act, Title IX compliance, sexual assault, dating abuse, emergency communications, incident management software and more. Robin has been featured on national and local media outlets and was formerly associate editor for the trade publication Security Sales & Integration. She obtained her undergraduate degree in history from California State University, Long Beach.
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