Campus Cops

The fact that some people are surprised when they get stopped by a
UA Police Department patrol car amazes Sgt. Juan Alvarez.

“It’s as if they think we’re some type of campus security,” quipped
Alvarez, the UAPD public-information specialist who has been with the
force for more than 20 years.

The UAPD patrol area reaches into surrounding neighborhoods in
what’s called the UA “planning boundary.” That boundary and a
long-standing agreement with the Tucson Police Department allow UAPD
officers to monitor high-traffic streets, such as Speedway Boulevard
and Campbell and Euclid avenues.

And when asked if UAPD traffic-patrol cars sit off streets like
Campbell to check for speeders, Alvarez said yes.

“It is very common for us to patrol in the area of the planning
boundary,” he explained. “A lot of traffic goes through this area that
is also coming to the campus. That’s why we’re there.”

According to a public-records request filed by the Weekly,
the UAPD issued 3,929 traffic citations for 5,630 offenses in 2008.
Through Oct. 29, the department has issued 3,055 traffic citations for
4,434 offenses this year.

Alvarez said that if you consider the fact that each UAPD
traffic-patrol officer makes an average six to 12 stops a day, the
numbers make sense.

“There’s no goal issue or quota,” Alvarez said. “We’re dealing with
a population on campus of more than 55,000 people every day, and we’re
in the middle of the city. Our main focus (when we issue citations) is
to educate the public on traffic law.”

The UAPD normally has five traffic-patrol officers. Regular patrol
officers also make traffic stops; the UAPD has three patrol teams with
eight officers each. There are also three investigative detectives on
staff as well.

The majority of the citations are issued in the outlying areas
within the planning boundary. The planning boundary includes the main
campus, as well as other school buildings on outlying streets. The
boundary area goes south to 8th Street, north to Lester Street, west to
Euclid Avenue and east to Campbell Avenue. Alvarez said the UAPD also
patrols Mount Graham, where the UA operates an astronomy facility, with
four officers who live on the premises.

Though UAPD officers write almost 4,000 citations a year, that
doesn’t mean the UAPD is making lots of money for its work; Alvarez
said all the ticket fees go to the Pima County Justice Court.

“Maybe some of the money from the fines comes back through the
state, but I don’t really know,” Alvarez explained.

According to Ralph Garcia Jr., the Pima County Justice Court’s
case-management supervisor, UAPD-issued tickets are treated just like
tickets issued by the Pima County Sheriff’s Department. Ten dollars
goes to the Justice Court Enhancement Fund, and the remaining amount
goes to other state and county funds, such as Clean Elections and the
Fill the Gap fund that collects money for the Pima County Attorney’s
Office and the Pima County Public Defender’s Office.

Alvarez said there are also areas of Tucson where the Tucson Police
Department has explicitly asked the UAPD to help out, due to stressed
TPD resources. Once spot is the gas station on the northwest corner of
Park Avenue and Sixth Street.

“If they get called out there, they’ll ask us to respond. We’re
closer and often have the resources available,” Alvarez said.

The FBI has laid down some ground rules on what cases the UAPD
should respond to within the planning boundary. Crimes such as
kidnapping, assault, forgery and DUI are assigned on a case-by-case
basis. The UAPD, as the main enforcement agency with jurisdiction,
handles crimes such as murder, burglary, sexual assault, car theft and
arson within the planning boundary, Alvarez said.

One example is the murder of UA student Mia Henderson by her
roommate Galareka Harrison in the Graham-Greenlee Residence Hall on
Sept. 5, 2007. (Harrison was sentenced to life without parole.) Alvarez
said the UAPD handled the crime scene and the investigation that
followed, although it did request forensic assistance by the state
Department of Public Safety, since the UAPD does not have a forensics
department.

While murder is on the list of crimes that the UAPD will handle, the
agency will not respond to possible red tags at student parties
off-campus—even if they’re within the UA planning boundary.
Alvarez said those are left up to Tucson police.

Despite the list of who does what or who responds to what, Alvarez
said all law-enforcement agencies are equal in terms of training and
how they are held accountable.

In a conference room at the UAPD headquarters at First Street and
Campbell Avenue, Alvarez pointed to a framed accreditation certificate
from a national organization that audits law-enforcement agencies
across the country.

Every three years, the UAPD goes through an audit from the
Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA), which
looks at police-department records, arrests, the handling of evidence
and pretty much everything else any law-enforcement agency does to
operate.

“Last March, we received our sixth accreditation,” Alvarez said,
adding it’s the same accreditation that the Tucson Police Department
receives, through the same audit process.

Alvarez said the UAPD’s authority as peace officers—and the
authority of other Arizona state university police
departments—comes from the Arizona Board of Regents. Every
officer and detective is also considered a commissioned officer of the
state.

“We can respond to a traffic violation in Oro Valley if we are
there,” Alvarez said, adding that his officers are not making routine
trips to Oro Valley.

“But because we are commissioned officers, we are able to respond
even outside the UA (planning) boundary.”

And the training is the same, too. Alvarez said new UAPD hires are
sent to the Tucson Police Academy to receive the same training as TPD
officers.

“We’re about the size of a medium-size city’s police department, but
we’re in this interesting situation of being in the middle of Tucson.
And we’re doing the same things as other police departments; we just
happen to be on a campus,” Alvarez said.

This article appears in Nov 12-18, 2009.