University of Rochester – Safety and Security at Large Institutions

Special thanks to University of Rochester Public Safety team led by Chief Quechee Collins, Associate Vice-President, for presenting and hosting the recent ASIS Greater Rochester meeting on safety and security at large institutions.

University of Rochester (U of R) and UR Medicine certainly qualifies as a large complex diverse institution that includes a medical system with multiple hospitals and clinics throughout the Greater Rochester region, two primary higher education campuses (River Campus and Eastman School of Music), research facilities like the U of R Laser Labs, the Memorial Art Gallery and other facilities. There are over 40,000 employees not counting the student population.

Public Safety is a 24/7/365 operation supporting all aspects of safety and security. U of R is guided by principles such as Patient Care First and there are high expectations for safety, positive experiences and transparency. The U of R Public Safety team deals with a variety of issues such as rising workplace violence, mental health, protests, narcotics, theft, and facility damage.

The Public Safety team has been working on internal improvements to reduce risk and improve efficiency. These include addressing fragmented operations, deployment misalignment, technology gaps, and leadership misalignment. The key initiatives are summarized below:

1.       Creating a differentiated response model and optimizing the deployment of Peace Officers and Police Officers including the establishment of a Community Engagement office.

2.       Zone-based public safety – separating the full campus into zones with assigned commanders that are able to address specific needs of the zone.

3.       Building a scalable operations model with 16 lines of service.

4.       Setting up a centralized integration hub that serves as an emergency operations center and real time crime center and is connected to various law enforcement resources

5.       Technology upgrades such as weapons detection systems, mobile surveillance systems and a drone unit.

Another key initiative has been to build relationships and trust through communications and transparency throughout the education and medical centers with leadership, faculty, and student groups. These efforts are also supported by the care teams setup for the well-being of employees and students.

The U of R Public safety team embraces the U or R motto of Meliora (Ever Better) through key performance indicators, key improvement planning, benchmarking and certifications.