By Zack Comeau
Editorial Staff

An accreditation process for the Framingham State PD is nearing completion, and campus police could soon be on par with state and local police departments’ professional standards.

Campus Police Chief Brad Medeiros hopes that once the department is accredited by the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission, President Timothy Flanagan and the FSU Board of Trustees will revisit the issue of whether to arm campus police.

According to Medeiros, achieving accreditation is a “voluntary, self-motivated approach by which organizations achieve the highest quality of operations.”

The department looks to adhere to “identical” policies and procedures that agencies such as the Framingham Police Department and Massachusetts State Police follow.

According to Dale Hamel, executive vice president, the “largest direct expense” relating to accreditation has been “consulting support for training and policy development.” Over the past three years, he said, a total of $67,000 has been spent for “consulting support, including certification-associated programs, as well as general administrative support.”

Hamel added that every police officer has participated in numerous training programs, which has resulted in overtime costs. “We cannot readily determine what portion of overtime expenses could be attributable to the certification effort, but it has been significant,” he said.

The university, he said, has also performed small construction projects to support the accreditation effort, such as security enhancements to the “evidence room.”

Hamel added there is an annual fee of $1,000 to the MPAC for participation in its program.

According to Medeiros, the policies that have been put into writing are “top shelf” and bring “uniformity to everything.” By achieving this level of certification, Medeiros added there would be an improved working relationship between his department and town and state police.

“Framingham PD is accredited – we work very closely with them, so it is very important that my officers are following the same policies and procedures as Framingham officers,” he said. “They expect the same kind of response from the same situation. If you’re dealing with one of my officers on State Street or a Framingham cop, you should get the same quality of service.”

The Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission – the institution assessing the department – performed a “mock assessment” last summer, which allowed for necessary corrections to be made before the final commission review, which is scheduled to take place in January.

Revisions and corrections to written policies and procedures concerning different FSUPD operations have been made. According to Medeiros, 155 written policies on how to handle situations such as active shooters, crowd control, parking and traffic management and missing persons have been rewritten or written for the first time.

The process of selecting and hiring officers has also been modified. In addition to an interview, said Medeiros, there is a structured, standardized process of selecting officers.

“It’s a much better method to vet out those who are not eligible for employment,” said Medeiros. “We want the most qualified candidates for the position.”

According to Medeiros, each officer has had “at least 40 hours of policy review alone” in a classroom setting.

Arming the department, said Medeiros, is not a direct product of accreditation. After accreditation is complete, President Flanagan and the Board of Trustees have the final say about arming the department.

“If a police officer is wearing a badge, has the powers of arrest, has the power to take somebody’s civil rights away and detain them, they should be armed,” Medeiros said. He added that should there be an active shooter on campus, his department would be 100 percent reliant on Framingham or State police departments. Such incidents have happened at college campuses in recent years, most recently yesterday at Virginia Tech. If his officers were armed, he said, the threat could be immediately addressed.

“Instead of going in the opposite direction of an aggressor with a firearm, we would be aggressively pursuing that threat immediately to stop it,” he said.

Bassam Bitar, a junior, believes the prospect of arming campus police is “an intimidation factor.

“They have never needed [firearms] up to this point,” he said. “I just think it’s unnecessary for campus police.”

Sam Palmer, a junior, said she doesn’t see a need for campus police to carry firearms, as the only time she interacts with them is when they are “working detail for a function, ticketing cars or coming into a residence hall to deal with an alcohol, drug or vandalism situation.

“I feel if I knew more about the specific situations that campus police dealt with, I could better judge the extent of their need,” she said.

Cailin Donovan, a junior, said she opposes arming campus police. “There is absolutely no reason for a campus police officer to be carrying a gun. We have never had any problem on campus that would even require one of them to take out a gun, so why should they carry one?”

Donovan said she believes Framingham is an unlikely target for violent crimes such as a shooting. If something of that nature were to happen, Donovan expressed her trust in Framingham PD to react swiftly.

“There is no way anyone can be prepared for something like that,” she said. “The Framingham Police Department is large enough that if something were to happen, they would be right there.”

Michael Kevorkian, a junior and employee of Framingham State ITS, believes the prospect of arming campus police would provide extra safety to the school.

“If their policy is rewritten to allow officers to carry guns, it will only make me feel safer as a student,” he said, adding that he knows all of the officers on a first-name basis since he works on campus.

“These officers are people, too,” he said. “They aren’t the type of individuals to take advantage of a policy like that.”

Melissa Kerner, a junior, weighed the pros and cons of accreditation and arming the department.

“I think it’s a good idea based on safety, just in case of certain situations,” she said. “But [firearms] will just make them feel more powerful and look down on us even more than they do now.”

Jonathan Hutchins, a freshman, said it would add safety if campus police became armed after achieving accreditation.

“If a regular town cop has the right to carry [firearms], then why shouldn’t campus police?” he said. “If a situation gets out of hand and someone draws a weapon, I would feel safer knowing that campus police had them too.”