In an agreement with the Champaign Police Department, the University of Illinois Police Department (UIPD) now has jurisdiction over parts of Campustown, an area of the city with a good number of student residents and student-focused businesses. Seven additional patrol officers were hired to help cover the larger footprint, plus a UIPD substation was added that houses the Community Outreach and Support Team that provides educational and community programming, unarmed Community Services Officers who handle low-level calls for incidents such as thefts and vandalism, and the Response, Evaluation And Crisis Help (REACH) initiative that pairs mental health professionals with police officers, providing a co-response model to mental health-related emergencies.
“Because this is an area with a lot of student residents and student-focused businesses, it made sense to offer our support to CPD and begin taking Campustown calls,” UIPD Police Chief Alice Cary told the Daily Illini. “University police have extensive understanding of student needs and concerns from officers’ experiences on campus, and they have a deep working knowledge of campus resources tailored to students’ needs. This allows us to provide really student-focused services.”
Read more about the agreement here.
