Temple’s Department of Public Safety prepared new resources and hired more staff during the summer in hopes of revitalizing the police and investigation programs following years of low recruitment.
DPS updated their dispatch computer system and center, while the detective unit expanded by two to a total of eight detectives and is in the final steps of hiring a sergeant of investigations. The sergeant would assist as a supervisor and mentor to help lead the team.
Seven new officers were hired in late June — two coming from nearby suburban police departments and one former National Guard officer. In late July, DPS also installed license plate reader cameras to help deter crime.
The LPR cameras installed around campus help to detect license plates involved in any investigations, such as stolen vehicles, a missing person or wanted suspects. Temple is the first university in Pennsylvania to use the technology. TUPD recovered a stolen vehicle at the 1700 block of Fontain Street in early August with the new cameras.
“It’s not just throwing police officers at every issue, and from a community policing aspect that’s not always the best option, and that’s not always what the community wants,” said Temple’s Vice president for Public Safety Jennifer Griffin. “It’s really about finding ways that we can use technology, our personnel and working with the city and other resources on how we can create a safe environment here at Temple.”
Since Griffin took over the position two years ago, updates to field training and different educational opportunities have taken priority. Temple allocated almost $33 million to public safety for the 2024 fiscal year, and aims to increase that number by 4.2% in 2025, to $34.4 million.
“Policing is about evolving, being flexible, and adapting to the situation,” Griffin said. “We’ve done probably three dozen different upgrades for training and equipment, and within the last year, gotten everything brand new between tasers, long guns, handguns, body-worn vest carriers, cars, even in all the technology we want to roll out this semester.”
The Automated Records Management System, the new dispatch system, improves communication and response time. The old system required dispatchers to manually input address information while the new system automatically provides an address based on a given building name.
The system will also notify police officers’ in-vehicle computers of an incident. Dispatchers will still verbally inform the officers of an emergency, but the system will automatically tell on-duty police officers the location of an incident.
The new Temple Student Government administration is prioritizing collaboration with DPS to make sure students also get timely safety updates.
“I definitely think with their new technology, the new hiring, [which TSG is] all supportive of, and I would say the main thing we pushed for in our campaign was a newsletter of sorts,” said TSG Director of Public Safety Tanner Wood. “Something that would send a [public safety] update through email to students to let them know the main things: what’s happening on campus, crime trends.”
DPS hired two new detectives, both of whom have experience as law enforcement officers. Alongside these hirings, detective Tom Macartney was promoted to Captain of Public Safety. He comes with 33 years of experience from the Philadelphia Police Department.
“The Department of Public Safety is always looking for more people, and we’re looking down the road to add more detectives and just to help with students,” Macartney said. “We’re able to work with the system that Philadelphia Police Department uses online, so we’ll be able to investigate a case start to finish if it’s Temple related and be able to follow that through.”
DPS hopes to keep updating their systems, whether it’s hiring staff or finding new ways to cooperate with PPD or different university departments to aid in Temple’s safety needs.
“Our students are coming in with a lot of unique challenges, some coming with financial or mental health or academic or relationship challenges,” Griffin said. “To support all of the students, you need a lot of back end resources and people to help students navigate those resources. These different positions help us in that aspect, to clear those crimes and bring them to a solvable, successful conclusion.”
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