Crime Prevention Day

This past week our office, the Office of Student Life, worked alongside the Bergen County Police department and the Office of Public Safety to organize a Crime Prevention Day on campus. As you may or may not know, October is Crime Prevention Month, so when the Sergeant of the Bergen County PD approached our office with the idea of organizing a day dedicated to educating students and faculty, I jumped at the opportunity to help.

And so from the hours of 11 am to 2 pm on a Thursday our Bergen County PD alongside Public Safety covered the topics of identity theft, active shooter response, crime prevention tips, domestic violence prevention, the Clery act, an overview of the Bergen County PD’s primary responsibilities, and ended the day with a K-9 unit demonstration for all college members to see.

Overall, the day was quite successful. I like to see this day as an educational training day or as an extended teachable moment. Although I am happy to say that our campus is quite safe (knock on wood), it is always important to make sure all students, faculty and staff know what to do in case of an emergency. Therefore, I look forward to working with Bergen County PD in the spring to organize another Crime Prevention Day in order to refresh memories and/or reach a new batch of students.

Unfortunately, in this day and age we cannot remain naïve to the ways of the world and believe that any person who walks into our college will do no harm within our college community. Rather we can be proactive and educate all those within our community with the hopes that we never have to utilize the knowledge we have acquired.

Did you campus plan any events for Crime Prevention Month? How do you work with your local law enforcement agencies to develop stronger partnerships?

Originally posted on The Student Affairs Collective: https://studentaffairscollective.org/crime-prevention-day/