University Police accomplishments and plans

The future looks bright for the men and women in gray, Binghamton University Chief of Police Timothy Faughnan told the Binghamton University Council Friday.

Faughnan, who started his presentation by thanking the council for the opportunity to brag about his department and its accomplishments, spoke of the diversity of the police force, reviewed crime statistics and lauded the all-time high 307 educational programs his department completed in the past year before looking to the future.

“Crime incident reports continue to decline,” he said, “which is relevant as enrollment continues to increase. We’re holding the line and not seeing a lot more criminal activity.

“Plus, Binghamton University Police do far more than deal with crimes and the rising numbers in total activity attest to the service initiatives we do. We’re a service organization and more engaged with the community than ever,” he said.

Much of the work his department focuses on is guardianship, Faughnan added. “We’re part of the educational mission of the University. Some people just need to be arrested, but when there’s an opportunity to turn them around, Student Conduct does a great job,” he said. “We’re also working on a pilot program with Residential Life to have them deal with minor issues. And a number of us meet every Monday morning and review everything. The way that people work together on this campus is unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”

Faughnan has been working on a three-year plan to earn New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services accreditation as well. “We’re on schedule,” he said. “A lot of the accreditation involves us rewriting our general orders and standards to fit their templates. We’re tailoring every one of our 400+ general orders to this campus.”

Turning to the future, Faughnan spoke of the inroads already made in establishing a police presence in Johnson City for the Health Sciences Campus that is under construction.

“We’re working on staffing and deployment and our plan has been approved,” he said, with an initial wave of hiring taking place now, in advance of fall of 2018 opening of the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences there. “The reason for hiring now is these recruits all have to be academy and field trained because we want them trained and ready to go when the building opens.” In another year, additional supervisory staff will be added, Faughnan added. “The goal here is, this will be a top-to-bottom police operation in Johnson City. It’s a unique facility unlike we’ve had before, with its own needs. I want decision-making authoring on site all of the time. We’re essentially giving them a substation. Our visible presence in Johnson City is very important.”

Faughnan and his staff are already working with Johnson City Police Department (JCPD), who wear blue uniforms, including by updating their mutual aid agreement and planning how to respond as a team. “We have very good working agreements with the Village of Johnson City,” he said. “They’re excited to assist us and have us assist them. We’re already responding together because we have property there.

“Our presence will change the character of the whole area for the better,” Faughnan said. “We’re also talking with JCPD and UHS to see if we can combine our training resources, and bring JC police into our fold to learn how we deal with our community.

“That’s the future. We’ll be ready, with police services there and ready to go.”