Directs the trustees of the state university to appoint a commissioner of state university police

Summary of provisions

Section 1 of the bill lays out the legislative intent to create a more rational and effective system of administration for campus police forces at the state university of New York.

Section 2 of the bill amends Education Law section 355(2) (1) by adding new language directing the Trustees of the State University of New York to appoint a Commissioner of State University Police who shall have full administrative authority over the campus police agencies on all SUNY campuses.

Section 2 of the bill provides that it shall take effect on the first day of January next succeeding the date on which it shall have become a law.

Justification

The men and women of the State university Police serve and protect a community of half a million students, faculty, administration and other employees and a statewide infrastructure of research and technological facilities worth many billions of dollars. This system is crucial to the global competitiveness and future prosperity of the state and people of New York. It is imperative and much in the public interest that members of those campus police forces be given leadership and direction commensurate with their responsibility to provide the level of service this world class university system requires.

As currently administered, police services to the campuses of the SUNY system are operated under a decentralized structure. Each of the twenty-eight campuses currently maintaining a police force operate under its own policies, procedures, practices, budgets, resources and levels of efficiency and preparedness. Some are, as a result, inadequately equipped and trained and unable to put the number of boots-on-the-ground that is required to police a large and populous

campus community. Certainly, capability to respond to instances of violent situations and disasters is unacceptably uneven among campuses.

SUNY Systems Administration currently maintains the position of Assistant Vice Chancellor of University Police and Director of Public Safety. This position is of an advisory nature and cannot mandate specific or standard policy or procedure applicable to all campus police departments including such basic and critical matters as staffing, arming, equipping, training, allocation of resources and critical incident response preparedness. This structure is inefficient both in carrying out the State University's obligation to provide for public safety and to do so in the most administratively efficient and fiscally responsible manner possible.

This legislation will centralize and streamline the administration of the currently existing twenty-eight campus police agencies and save the state an initial $3 million a year. The reorganization would place responsibility for administering a system-wide force of 500 Police Officers, Police Investigators and Police Supervisors with a SUNY Police Commissioner qualified by background, training and experience and appointed by the Trustees. This will provide for a State University Police to be operated in a centralized, paramilitary format with designated rank structures and a centralized chain of command.

Legislative history

This is new legislation.

Fiscal implications

Centralizing the administration of twenty-eight SUNY Campus Police Forces will reduce costs and realize savings through standardization affecting many expenses for equipment, training and so forth. It is estimated that the bill will realize a savings of $3 million a year.

Effective date

The first day of January next succeeding the date on which it shall have become law.