FBI to Colleges: We Want to Work With You

The FBI Campus Liaison Initiative can help college and university public safety departments with investigations, threat assessments, incident response and more.

Meyer can vouch for the value of the program to nonsworn departments. “As a director of a nonsworn public safety agency, to have this kind of support from the FBI is quite helpful because we have limited resources when it comes to investigations,” he says.

Liaisons Encouraged to Attend Association Meetings

Gant recommends that college and university law enforcement and security departments reach out to their local campus liaisons.

“We want to build a relationship,” she says. “You have to remember, there is only one campus liaison agent [per district]. She can only get to so many places, so we ask campus public safety departments to reach out to her.”

The FBI also encourages its campus liaisons to attend state, local and regional association meetings when possible. For example, the Connecticut agent will be participating in the Northeast Colleges and Universities Security Association (NECUSA) 2011 Conference, which will be held June 19-23. The FBI liaison will provide an overview of the initiative and be available for questions from attendees.

Although the 56 field offices have varied approaches to handling threats, Gant says many can help not only with threats involving terrorism, but also those associated behavioral health, intellectual property and cyber crime. They can also help a campus develop a threat assessment team, if it hasn’t already created one.

She also encourages colleges and universities to assign full-time officers to the local JTTFs: “The more input we can have on the JTTF from campuses, the better this country is going to be. One campus can have a tremendous impact and can represent numerous campuses.”

‘We Have to Go Where Terrorism Takes Us’

Gant claims the Campus Liaison Initiative helps to build the trust that must exist between campus public safety and the FBI to thwart terrorism and keep universities and colleges safe.

“We’re not there to take anything over,” she says. “We’re not there to run rampant on campus. It’s exactly the opposite. We have to go where terrorism takes us, so we often have to go onto campuses. We’d rather do it in partnership with the campus rather than them not knowing. No single agency can fight terrorism.”

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Photo by Michael M. Kenny, via Flicker

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About the Author

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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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