Margolis Healy Recommendation Progress

Reimagining Campus Safety, Security & Law Enforcement

Margolis Healy Recommendations Implementation Progress

Margolis Healy Report Background

In January 2020, the University of Arizona retained Margolis Healy and Associates, LLC to help ensure the University is providing unbiased, equitable, inclusive, accountable, and transparent campus safety, security, and law enforcement services. What began as a more straightforward operational assessment took on added significance as we considered the heightened national conversation around policing as a catalyst for positive change locally.

On April 23, 2021, Margolis Healy provided renewed perspectives and actionable recommendations for how the University community can reimagine our campus safety partnership.

Re-imagining Safety, Security, and Law Enforcement at the University of Arizona, prepared by Margolis Healy and Associates, LLC, April 23, 2021. Find the complete Margolis Healy report.

Key Takeaways

Ours is a community thriving with strong partnerships built by dedicated, compassionate employees –many of whom are alumni– and our students. This includes the members of UAPD, who are noted as remarkable among their peers for a high-level of proactive training, sustained triple accreditation and their "approachability and can-do attitude."

This strong foundation positions us well for answering the calls, both nationally and locally, to fundamentally transform how we address the needs of our community – particularly the needs of those among us who have been marginalized for far too long. The report identifies seven major themes and five additional focus areas, with recommendations for our leadership, UAPD and the entire University to consider.

Themes

  • Initiate a Community Restorative Process to Address Lingering Complaints about Interactions with UAPD
  • Embrace a Collaborative Approach with Key Stakeholders
  • Reach Intuitional Consensus on a Re-Imagined Mission, Values, and Culture for UAPD
  • Address Climate Issues within UAPD
  • Enhance Transparency
  • Develop an Alternative Response Program
  • Develop a Robust, Cohesive Strategy for Engaging with the University Community

Additional Focus Areas

  • Implement Accountability Initiatives
  • Ensure alignment with promising practices regarding unbiased policing and response to bias incidents
  • Continue to enhance the UAPD training program
  • Recruitment, selection, promotion, retention, and mentoring
  • Coordination with external partners

Methodology

A two-phase approach was used for this review, with each phase supporting the other and providing additional context for the framework for reimagining campus safety at the University of Arizona.

Phase I

Extensive community outreach and engagement, through a series of key informant interviews with Arizona community members, including faculty, students, and University leadership, to inform context for the forums.

A series of listening sessions, with a wide range of stakeholders, including faculty, staff, and student groups.

The facilitators then compiled and analyzed the information they gathered during the engagement sessions, identifying the key themes arising from these conversations.

Phase II

A review of UAPD operations, approach, and policies and included extensive interviews with UAPD members, campus partners, other key stakeholders, and external agencies with whom UAPD works.

Progress Toward Implementation

Recommendations

Recommendation Status Date Complete

1. Consider working with a restorative process practitioner to initiate one of the strategies outlined below.

  • Tier 1: Team and Community Building (Prevention/Relation): characterized by using effective communication skills and practice (discussion circles) to build relationships, create shared values, guidelines, and goals. Tier 1 promotes restorative conversations following disruptions and/or preemptively addresses difficult issues within communities or work groups. The goal is to build a supportive, intentional, and equitable community with conditions conducive to learning and working. Tier 1 circles can be utilized within working groups, larger departments, or social identity groups, and across the broader campus community.
  • Tier 2: Restorative Accountability Processes (Intervention/Repair): uses non-punitive response to harm and conflict in the form of healing circles, restorative mediation, or group conferencing to respond to issues of harm in a restorative manner. This process addresses the root causes of the harm, includes all impacted parties or representatives of all impacted groups, supports meaningful accountability for the harmer(s), and promotes healing for the harmed parties, the harmer(s), and the larger community.
 Future Focus  

Recommendation Status Date Complete
2. The UAPD leadership team must work to listen intentionally to community members when they raise concerns that challenge standing policies and procedures, especially when those concerns confront traditional campus policing approaches and protocols. Complete April 2022
3. Engage key stakeholders to assist in identifying approaches to improve intra-departmental communication. Complete April 2022
4. After appropriate orientation and understanding of scope and role, involve the command staff and sergeants in community meetings, campus committees, and key partner staff meetings to foster broader participation and understanding of community needs, interpersonal relationships, and problem-solving opportunities. Complete April 2022
5. Create a workgroup that includes representatives from key partners such as Residence Life, Student Affairs, Facilities, CAPS, and Athletics to hear their input and expectations and build consensus around problem-solving approaches. In Progress  

Recommendation Status Date Complete

 6. Build a consensus-based shared vision for UAPD’s primary mission, values, and culture through a campus-inclusive strategic planning process.

Notes: Created Vision, Mission, and Core Values statements with input from department members and stakeholders including the Dean of Students, Athletics, OGC, OIE, Chair of the Faculty Senate, Admissions, Disability Services, Residence Life, ASUA, and FSP.   

 Complete August 2023

7. Re-consider the framing of the UAPD mission statement during a campus inclusive process. UAPD’s mission statement

should reflect the department’s role as the cornerstone and “guardian” of campus safety, and include such concepts as:

  • The preservation of life and reduction of harm;
  • Trust and procedural justice;
  • Community buy-in and sustained engagement with the campus community; and,
  • Rigorous, ongoing, and evidence-based training, and education.
 Complete August 2023
8. Re-examine UAPD values in light of the university community’s prevailing desires and the need to support safety for all. Complete August 2023
9. Continue to foster strong relationships and endeavor to be responsive to the departments’ critics in developing a path forward. Ongoing  

10. Embrace the need to build capacity for ongoing cultural humility, competency and awareness.

Notes: "What You Do Matters" and cultural diversity trainings completed.

 Complete

January 2023

March 2023

 

Recommendation Status Date Complete
11. Continue to include UAPD leadership in the University’s process to reimagining safety, security, and law enforcement. In progress  
12. As University leadership solidifies its decisions re-imagining safety, security, and law enforcement, communicate these decisions first to the UAPD membership and then to the UA community. In progress  
13. Consider conducting a climate assessment within UAPD. Use the results of the climate assessment to address the climate and culture challenges. Alternatively, and as a starting point, adopt a systematic process to address the climate concerns highlighted in this report. Future Focus  
14. Identify resiliency, mindfulness, and mental health programming to meet the wellness emotional needs of UAPD members. Ongoing  

15. UAPD leadership must create functional systems to acknowledge the receipt of staff feedback, and provide inclusive opportunities for additional discussion thereof, whenever feasible.

Notes: Created a virtual suggestion box

 Complete June 2022

16. Re-evaluate the use of the Guardian Tracking system, especially regarding flagging sick time and work absence issues.

Notes: This system is no longer used to track sick time.

 Complete April 2022

17. Department leadership should periodically meet, in person whenever possible, with line-level staff to show support and open lines of communication.

Notes: Instituted monthly sergeant and supervisor meetings

 Complete June 2022
18. Schedule regular, structured meetings of UAPD, inclusive of all ranks and specialties, to share information, review incidents, and discuss protocol and procedural issues. Future Focus  
19. Establish a formal inclusive internal policy review process to develop, review, and revise policies. Include representation from all ranks and units to support and encourage broad input. (We make recommendations throughout this report regarding transparency; these recommendations equally apply to internal constituents as well as campus members.) In progress  

20. Adopt procedural justice concepts in internal operations. Research shows that officers who believe they are being treated fairly inside their departments are more likely to treat members of the public fairly.

Notes: Revamped processes for promotions and specialty assignments to include feedback from other stakeholders (University employees, outside law enforcement agencies subject matter experts) in oral board interviews.

 Complete March 2022

Recommendation Status Date Complete
21. MarComm and UAPD should develop clear, concise protocols before incidents take place to agree on what types of incidents warrant consideration for an immediate response, establish notification protocols, and to create playbooks for responses to likely critical incidents.   Complete December 2022
22. Consider forming a crisis communication team, comprised of the appropriate emergency services personnel, public relations staff from Student Affairs and Human Resources, and legal counsel, to continually audit crisis communication response policies and protocols, solicit feedback from the community, and design and implement tabletop exercises for communicating before, during and after different crises. In progress  
23. Use the crisis communication team to perform a “post-incident” review to identify strengths and opportunities to improve. Appropriately share the results of the review, and any changes to policy and procedures, with the community. Future Focus  
24. Consider meeting annually with student media and other local media personnel to share University and UAPD policies and set expectations for working with MarComm and UAPD PIOs. Future Focus  
25. Gather gender identity, race, and ethnicity demographics for motor vehicle stops, arrests, and uses of force. Share the demographic breakdowns in publicly available department reports, published monthly. In progress  

26. Broaden the department information/reports shared on UAPD’s website to include the following:

  • Reports for the number of motor vehicle stops conducted, arrests made, and uses of force by members of the department;
  • Recruiting efforts
  • UAPD annual and in-service training programs, especially those related to equitable and unbiased policing, cultural competencies, and social and procedural justice.
 In progress  

27. Consider sharing the gender identity, race, and ethnicity demographics of the UAPD.

Notes: UAPD Demographic information is available on our website.

 Complete 2022
28. Assign an individual or team of UAPD members who have the appropriate authority through policy to lead the department’s transparency initiatives in various social media platforms. The individual or team should be proficient in communicating through a variety of social media platforms and ensure that appropriate policies and procedures are followed. In progress  

Note: Recommendations 29-32 pertain to the disbanded Campus Advisory Board and are not applicable. The Office of Public Safety created a Campus Safety Commission made up of faculty, staff and students and is designed to have more input and can affect broader change. Its' mission is different from the CAB's, as it works to advise the Chief Safety Officer on matters related to the development, implementation, and evaluation of informed, inclusive, and responsive safety policies and practices. 

29. Increase the membership of the CAB to include representatives from student affairs, student government, Athletics, and Facilities.

30. Ensure that future marketing efforts clarify that the CAB is an advisory board to the UAPD, not a part of UAPD.

31. Expand the accessibility to information about the CAB on multiple, high profile University webpages.

32. Consider how the University might broaden the primary role and purpose of the CAB to address calls for greater accountability, transparency, and transformative models of public safety.

Recommendation Status Date Complete

33. UAPD should continue to capture and evaluate data to identify further opportunities to defer non-law enforcement calls for service to the CSO and PA cadre. Proposals to develop the alternative response program should be reviewed with appropriate stakeholders. UAPD and stakeholders should collaboratively develop outlines for associated procedures. UAPD and stakeholders should address, minimally:

  • Matrix of activities/types of calls and response suitability;
  • Identification of alternate resources. Some of these resources may come from existing UAPD non-sworn and civilian staff, and the University may need to create new positions;
  • Development of appropriate dispatch and response policies and procedures;
  • Appropriate training and expectations for all responders;
  • Legal and compliance issues; and,
  • On-going analysis of CFS data to ensure the continued availability of appropriate personnel.

Legal and Compliance Issues: Overseen by the Office of General Counsel.

    
34. UAPD should, as a practice, capture the type of resource that responds to CFS to provide enough information to determine how many of what type of resource (police, security, community service officer) would best serve the campus needs. Future Focus  

35. Consider consolidating Police Aides and Community Service Officers into a singular unit and eliminating the “Police Aide” title. Agree on “soft” attire.

Notes: Police Aides are now known as University Safety Aides and have "softer" uniforms.

 Complete Sept. - Dec. 2022
36. Analyze alarm data to determine causes. Invest in an alarm reduction strategy based on the findings. In Progress  

37. Cease the practice of conducting traffic stops and not issuing a citation or warning as it decreases trust in officers’ intentions and legitimacy for the stop. Details on the rare exception to this should be documented in the dispatch call record.

Notes: Policy updated to require documenting.

 Complete 2022
38. Collect and analyze demographic data and location of violation on all stops, including traffic and pedestrian stops. The University should analyze this information monthly and disclose the results. In progress  
39. UAPD should capture more detailed, retrievable information, such as demographics and reason for contact, for all field contact interactions. The University should analyze this data monthly and disclose it to the public. In progress  

40. The University should continue to monitor and evaluate the pilot alternative response to individuals in mental health crisis.

Notes: This is overseen by Campus Health's Counseling and Psych Services.

 NA  
41. UAPD should continue to track and analyze CFS data to ensure they are appropriately resourced to move to a differential response model. In progress  

Recommendation Status Date Complete
42. UAPD must ground its community engagement and partnership efforts in person-to-person listening, candor, humility, and open-mindedness. The engagement must reflect the reality that students come to the UA community with a significant diversity of personal opinion and perhaps history with law enforcement. In progress  
43. Implement a comprehensive community and problem-oriented policing model that promotes community engagement and problem-solving at all levels as the primary way that all officers do business. In progress  
44. Identify and implement community interactions focusing on partnerships with traditionally underrepresented groups. We outlined a number of promising practices above. In progress  
45. Establish mechanisms for officers to share their community engagement and problem-solving activities within the department and the community. Ongoing  
46. Provide regular, unassigned time for patrol officers to engage with students, staff, and faculty. Support these interactions by preparing officers with professionally and intentionally designed and prepared materials for conversation-starters. In progress  

47. Consider modifying the uniforms of the Police Aides to a “softer,” non-military style that continues to identify them as UAPD employees, but presents a more approachable appearance.

Notes: Updated and "softened" University Safety Aide uniforms.

 Complete December 2022

Additional Focus Areas

Recommendation Status Date Complete

48. Leadership in UAPD must reinforce both the primacy and importance of accountability at all levels of the organization, and for all breaches, no matter how minor, of polices and expectations.

Notes: Accountability is ongoing.

 Complete March 2022

49. Given that front-line supervisors are the primary managers of line level officers, provide appropriate guidance to this group regarding disciplinary expectations.

Notes: Already practicing disciplinary guidance for front-line supervisors.

 Complete Ongoing
50. Publicly share, within existing guidelines, appropriate information about complaints and complaint resolution. In progress  
51. Consider using independent reviewers to investigate major policy violations. Complete  

Recommendation Status Date Complete

52. Update UAPD Policy 2.2 Bias Based Policing to:

  • Be more directive in its prohibition of biased based policing
  • Make it clear that UAPD will investigate all complaints of biased based enforcement.
  • Encourage or direct UAPD staff to intervene immediately or report observed bias policing incidents
  • Include UAPD’s definition of bias based policing and/or enforcement, nor does it explicitly state a prohibition of profiling based on a person’s actual or perceived race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or socio-economic status (IACLEA standard 4.1.3(d).

Notes: UAPD policy 2.2 was updated to be more direct in the prohibition biased based policing. Staff are encouraged to intervene immediately or report observed bias policing incidents.

 Complete April 2023
53. Ensure understanding of BEST and UAPD requirements, roles, and responsibilities, including UAPD Policy 8.14 – Response to Hate Crimes. In progress  

Recommendation Status Date Complete

54. Collaborate with student-facing campus partners such as Student Affairs, event planning, Residence Life, and student activities to develop a biennial “refresher” orientation for tenured UAPD staff.

Notes: Ongoing collaboration with campus partners for "refresher" orientations with tenured UAPD staff.

 Complete Ongoing
55. Develop critical task lists that identify the skills needed to perform each position within the department successfully. In progress  
56. Consider identifying and implementing an electronic training management tool to assist the department in managing all past, current and future training needs, such as PowerDMS and Lexipol. In progress  

57. Identify and retain an experienced cadre of FTO’s to assist in sustaining the department's Field Training Officer program.

Notes: Identifying and retaining experienced FTOs for department FTO program.

 Complete Ongoing
58. Working with internal stakeholders, enhance the UAPD orientation program to include the training areas mentioned above. In progress  

59. Consider adding internal and external stakeholders to the department’s training committee (residential life, student affairs, facilities, counseling center, local emergency first responders).

Notes: UAPD training program with involvement from stakeholders. Training with other university departments and outside law enforcement agencies.

 Complete  
60. Review the President’s Task Force Report on 21st Century Policing and the IACP’s Evidence Assessment of the Report as it relates to the departments training program. In progress  

Recommendation Status Date Complete
61. Continue to research and consider best practices for identifying the most suitable candidates for campus policing. While the research on appropriate screening tools for evaluating degrees of explicit and/or implicit bias is evolving, we encourage the University to work with their providers of psychological evaluations to include evidence based evaluative tools and/or tests in their screening processes. We also encourage UAPD to ensure that their contracted psychological services provider adheres to the standards in the IACP’s Consulting Police Psychologist Guidelines. Complete/Ongoing Ongoing
62. Consider adding members from the University’s Division of Human Resources and key internal stakeholders to the department’s initial officer candidate interviews. Future Focus  

63. Continue to prioritize the recruitment and selection of female officer candidates and candidates from under-represented populations.

Notes: 30 x 30 Representation

 Complete Ongoing
64. Consider independent HR exit interviews conducted to create the best opportunity for separating employees to be transparent about their resignations. Future Focus  
65. Ensure the department’s recruiting efforts receive the appropriate financial resources to meet the department’s recruiting goals and objectives. In progress  
66. Ensure the department’s recruiting materials highlight the unique benefits of policing in a higher education environment. In progress  

67. Continue to review and revise the UAPD recruiting policy to meet future hiring needs.

Notes: Expected completion of revised UAPD recruiting policy to meet future hiring needs by 5/22/23.

 In progress  
68. Include Realistic Job Previews into the department’s selection processes. In progress  
69. Consider developing mentoring programs for officers from underrepresented populations. Future Focus  

70. Conduct a full compensation study to understand where UAPD falls within the local law enforcement market.

Notes: A full compensation study was completed by UA Compensation.

 Complete April 2023
71. Ensure all members of the department’s recruiting team and their HR partners review the “Advancing Diversity in Law Enforcement” report mentioned above. In progress  

Recommendation Status Date Complete
72. Ensure all Intergovernmental Agreements and Memoranda of Understanding are updated to ensure the appropriate frameworks are established for the sharing of information and resources between agencies. In progress  

73. Continue to participate in all local, county, state, and federal training and exercise opportunities designed to test and evaluate the University’s emergency preparedness plans, policies, and procedures.

Notes: UAPD participates in the Pima Regional SWAT, Pima Regional Critical Incident Team, and  Active Attacker Response Team.

 Complete Ongoing