Increasing the policing

Matt Abra

The University of Manitoba’s security services does not have a detailed plan of how to improve security on campus, but is attempting to model their services after the implementation of increased police officers in other schools throughout the city.

Winnipeg Police Services has initiated a plan to assign police officers to elementary, junior high, and high schools in south-central and downtown Winnipeg. The officers are known as school resource officers and their role is to deal with any problems occurring within the school and with problems occurring in the community that relate to the school.

Constable Grant Gusberti, the resource officer for Kelvin, Grant Park, and Churchill high schools said, “At first many of the students wouldn’t even look at me. I’m now in my fourth week in the schools and it has diminished greatly. Students are coming into my office and talking to me. I’m really starting to glean a lot of information about the community and the area.”

Although U of M security services did not have any official details about future plans at this time, they did acknowledge that the administration is looking at the possibility of increasing police presence, in response to the rise in violence in all varieties of educational institutions.

At the university there are currently 32 officers working in security services. There is also an emergency response core group that looks at incidents occurring in universities across North America in order to create strategic plans in the event that similar incidents occur at the U of M.

In addition, volunteer student patrols roam the campus with radio frequencies that are in constant contact with security services. These patrols monitor specific areas of the campus such as tunnels and libraries, which community Constable Matthew Guyot said “are considered by many to be the least safe.”

The student patrols also make up the Safewalk program that offers students company when traveling on campus grounds.

Director of security services Linda Lavallee, said that she hopes increased police presence in high schools will create a familiarity that will transfer over to security services officers on campus if the students later attend the University of Manitoba.

“We are definitely hoping to build that bridge for students, as our security environments are not too dissimilar,” said Lavallee.

Aubrey Kehler, assistant director of security services said, “Our constables are sworn law-enforcement officers who can and will enforce the laws in relation to campus, but the concept and hope is to create a better environment for everyone to work and learn.”