Campus officers to carry personal protective equipment
Melissa Sundardas
News Editor
This fall, York’s Campus Security Services officers will be carrying personal protective equipment (PPE), including handcuffs and collapsible batons while on duty.
It was announced last year that campus security would be given new equipment, but training for the handcuffs and batons was not implemented until June 2012.
The Advance Patrol Training program completed by each security officer was 72 hours long, spanning over nine days.
“Each security official is required to achieve certification before they are equipped and authorized to execute their duties under the new intervention model,” says Rob Kilfoyle, director of York security services.
The training covered all aspects of advanced patrolling, the proper techniques for the use of handcuffs and batons, the strategies of emergency command, verbal de-escalation, crime prevention, and self-defense skills, says Kilfoyle. It also updated security staff on legislation, authorities, and university policy and procedures, he adds.
Joanne Rider of York media says that security officers will not be able to make official arrests of any persons who commit a crime on campus.
“They have the ability in terms of intervention for self-defence or in the defence of others to use the handcuffs and batons,” says Rider.
Kilfoyle explains that the equipment itself is not a crime deterrent and is instead personal protective equipment designed to make the roles and functions of York security officials safer to execute.
“The new model will assist in crime reduction on campus because security officials will now be empowered to engage more proactively in incidents,” says Kilfoyle.
A year ago, York President and Vice Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri agreed to implement the use of batons and handcuffs for security officers in response to a recommendation made in the 2010 Metropolitan Action Committee on Violence Against Women and Children (METRAC) safety audit report.
Section 2.4 of the report suggests that “a review of the ‘nonintervention policy’/Use of Force Response model for effectiveness should be undertaken in consultation with students, faculty and staff.”
Security staff will not be carrying pepper spray because only peace/police officers are authorized to use it, says Kilfoyle.
Vanessa Hunt, York Federation of Students president, says while she is pleased that security will now be able to intervene in situations where students may be harmed, the YFS’s biggest concern is ensuring that this new equipment is being used in the way it is intended to be used—as a means for personal protection.
“I would never want a situation to get out of hand,” says Hunt. “The way the security officers act with this increase of power is going to matter, not the equipment itself.”
