Campus Safety Voices

Schools across the nation should always be looking for ways to improve security, but often those improvements involve expensive investments in technology and other safety and security measures. So how can K-12 campus protection professionals find the budget for these upgrades? To find out, I spoke with Mike Newton, who is director of safety and security for the Elizabeth School District in Elizabe...

As manager of public safety and parking services for William Osler Health System, Calvin Millar is charged with developing a hospital workplace violence prevention program. Drawing from personal experiences in both hospital and non-hospital settings, Millar determined prioritizing customer service was the most effective way to mitigate violence. Millar elaborates on those experiences, plus: ● How...

Following the murder of George Floyd, police departments across the country conducted internal reviews to ensure leading practices were being followed. While looking inward is extremely important, internal reviews come with bias. Jason Schiffer, Lehigh University's chief of police and a 2023 Campus Safety Director of the Year finalist, turned to non-police campus leaders to form a committee t...

Although the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic is behind us, healthcare facilities are still dealing with the residual impacts on human behavior (6:28). Campus Safety's Amy Rock spoke with Dr. Marissa Randazzo,  executive director of threat management at Ontic, about the current state of violence in healthcare settings (1:05), in addition to: Tips for de-escalating concerning behavior (9:51) Fre...

Although school, university, and hospital security officers often patrol their campuses on foot, many of them also need patrol vehicles so they can most effectively protect their facilities and the surrounding areas. Unfortunately, patrol vehicles can be very expensive to not only purchase but also maintain. So how can a campus security department provide its employees with the patrol vehicles the...

One of the most challenging responsibilities of a school security, safety, and emergency management executive is handling the multitude of technology upgrades required for the protection of today’s K-12 campuses. In most districts of any size, there are a lot of moving parts, supply chain issues, contractors, and in-house employees that all must be effectively managed. But, how do you actually do...

With so many active shooter attacks happening in America, our nation’s institutions of higher education must prepare for the possibility that a mass shooting could happen on their campus. That’s why Biola University partnered with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department (LASD), as well as other local first responders, to conduct a full-scale active shooter exercise. In the exercise, which took place...

Digital hall pass technology, now used by thousands of schools across the country, has proven to curb vandalism and vaping, among other things. However, like with all technologies that collect personally identifiable information, there are student data privacy concerns to be considered. To discuss both the pros and cons of this technology, we spoke with Cobun Zweifel-Keegan, a data privacy lawyer...

With the rise of active shooter and active assailant attacks happening in our nation, more schools, institutions of higher education, and healthcare facilities are looking for better ways to keep intruders out, all while maintaining a welcoming environment for students, staff, patients, and guests. One of most effective ways to do this is to fortify the glass windows and glass doors on campus. The...

Incidents of swatting, or reporting false threats to elicit an emergency response, are on the rise, and many are targeting K-12 schools and colleges. In this interview, Jeffrey Yarbrough, police chief for the Hutto Police Department and former police chief of Round Rock Independent School District, both in Texas, talks about all things swatting, including why its so harmful ( 1:11 ), what the emer...

Hazing is a significant issue in both K-12 schools and higher education. One study estimates 47% of students go to college already having experienced hazing, and 55% of college students involved in clubs, teams, and organizations experience hazing as well. In this podcast, Holly Vector, Vice President of Education Strategy at Vector Solutions, speaks about the current state of hazing on college ca...

Given recent events in K-12 schools, including an increase in crime, administrators are looking for various ways to help them abate school safety concerns, one of which is security technology. Brandon Davito, VP of Product Operations at Verkada, discusses what customers are saying are their most significant qualms today and how technology is helping alleviate them, particularly staff shortages. OT...

One of the best ways to convince healthcare facility leadership of the need for a security, emergency management, or life safety system upgrade or change is to provide examples and data from other similar types of campuses of the success or failure of a particular type of technology, policy, or solution. However, when it comes to healthcare security, there currently isn’t much data available that...

Did you know a third of college students have bicycles on campus? And did you know that on many college and university campuses, more than half of all reported property crimes are for bike theft? Craig Dalton, executive director of Bike Index, a nonprofit online bike registry that has helped recover over $19 million worth of stolen bikes, spoke with us about how the organization has partnered with...

As more hospital, school, and university employees become concerned about their safety at work, many campuses are considering the adoption of panic buttons, which enable campus employees to summon for help when an emergency occurs.  In this interview with Campus Safety , Craig Dever from Inovonics talks about: The overall benefits and applications of wireless sensors, as well as how these sensors...

Since the 1999 Columbine High School shooting, more than 311,000 U.S. students have experienced gun violence at school. Teodora Pavkovic, a youth psychologist and parenting coach, offers tips for both school employees and parents on how to speak with kids and teens about school gun violence. Pavkovic also shares how to appropriately adjust those discussions based on a student's age. OTHER TOP...

After a violent incident at a school, investigators sometimes determine security technology or lacking policies proved somewhat or completely ineffective in preventing or mitigating that incident. This often leaves schools rushing to implement new or improved technology that is disparate and doesn't seamlessly integrate with other technologies. Jason Friedberg, commercial lead for education a...

Despite us being 2 ½ years into the pandemic and there being plenty of federal funding available, many schools have not taken action to improve their indoor air quality. To help us find ways that schools can take advantage of this funding, Campus Safety Editor-in-Chief Robin Hattersley interviewed Karen Cooper, who is director of offer management at Honeywell Building Technologies.  In this interv...

With all of the security, safety, and climate change challenges facing our nation today, it behooves schools, institutions of higher education, and healthcare facilities, as well as many other types of organizations to review and update their approaches to public safety, emergency management, energy savings, and sustainability. It’s even better if they can address all of these challenges with one...

Hospital violent crime increased by 47% from 2020 to 2021. One way to combat violence in hospitals is through de-escalation training, which has proven to protect employees and save hospitals money due to less nurse turnover. The Crisis Prevention Institute is one organization that provides this type of training, so we spoke to its President, Susan Driscoll, about recognizing early signs of anxiety...

In a 2020 CDC survey, 69.2% of adults ages 18-24 reported symptoms of anxiety, depression, or both, and nearly a quarter said they had seriously considered suicide. To diver deeper into these concerning statistics, we spoke to Corrine Williams, University of Kentucky’s (UK) acting associate vice president of student wellbeing, about the stresses that come with the transition to college, how that h...

While still grappling with the effects of the pandemic, in February 2021, the state of Texas was immobilized by historic Winter Storm Uri. Seven months later, Hurricane Nicholas made landfall. Although the University of Houston was impacted by these storms, the hard work put into continuity of operations planning by Ginger Walker, director of emergency management, kept impacts at a minimum, allowi...

Video surveillance serves many purposes, including entrance/exit monitoring and visitor verification. While many agree security cameras play a big role in keeping campuses safe, the available options can be overwhelming. We spoke with Allen Cain, director of safety and security at Gilbert Public Schools and a 2022 Campus Safety Director of the Year finalist, about his journey in selecting a new di...

Shortly after becoming Appalachian State's director of public safety and chief of police, Andy Stephenson established the school's highly-respected Police Officer Development Program. The 2-year program exceeds North Carolina's minimum training standards by hundreds of hours and students graduate as fully sworn police officers. Stephenson goes in-depth on the structure of the progra...

A community servant is someone who cares about the needs of others rather than the desire to have power. For Douglas Roberts, that's why he got into policing. Roberts, police chief at Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) and a 2022 Campus Safety Director of the Year finalist, spoke to us about ways he works to ensure the public has confidence in his police departme...