Campus Safety Initiatives

UMMC PD is always looking for new and innovative ways to address safety and security concerns on UMMC’s campus and at university sponsored events. In addition to conducting physical security assessments for any of our UMMC partners who request it, we routinely collaborate with different organizations on campus to see how as a whole UMMC faculty, staff and students can help keep the UMMC community safe. Below are a two of our new initiatives that took off in 2021 and 2022 that have changed the way we can effectively serve our community.

Behavioral Response Team (BRT)

In February 2022, UMMC PD launched a month-long pilot Behavioral Response Team (BRT) program and assigned 2 officers to the initiative at that time. These specially trained, plain-clothes officers provided the UMMC campus with a “soft-touch”, hands-on approach to handling calls for service involving people experiencing a mental health crisis. In August 2022, UMMC PD stood up a full-time, 4-person BRT unit providing a daily service on campus addressing acute mental health concerns and/or disorderly subjects in both the clinical and public settings.

Bicycle Team

In June 2022, UMMC PD began deploying police officers on bicycles around campus to supplement our Patrol Division. These officers are able to quickly navigate the campus and because of their greater visibility have the opportunity to interact with our UMMC community members in a more casual and face-to-face manner.