The Butte College Police Department is dedicated to the people, traditions and diversity of our College. In order to protect life and property, prevent crime and reduce the fear of crime, we will provide service with understanding, response with compassion, performance with integrity and law enforcement with vision.
Our Goal is always to ensure that the College is a safe, peaceful and comfortable place for students and staff. The College Police Officers have peace officer authority pursuant to Penal Code 830.32 and Education Code 72330. The College Police Department is responsible for law enforcement and all emergency responses on campus. The College Police department works closely with instructors and staff to resolve student disciplinary problems. We work closely with the health clinic to ensure wellness of our students and staff. We provide emergency response education to our students and staff. We work with all college departments to prevent crime when possible. We are also responsible for providing support services tailored to meet the needs of the diverse campus community. Our department strives to provide a sensitive measured approach to all situations requiring police assistance, while still maintaining the autonomy of the College.
The Butte College Police Department's last Program review was conducted in 2018 for the 2018/2019 fiscal year. That program review listed the following goals:
1) We will continue to seek out training opportunities with other agencies, online and increase training time internally.
2) We will continue to request funding for an additional full time Police Officer to increase presence and improve emergency response in the evening.
3) We will request funding for dedicated dispatchers for the Police Department.
4) We will deter crime by increasing our visible presence on campus by providing more training to students and staff, increasing time spent on foot patrol, implementing new technology to improve efficiency and predict crime trends.
5) We will attempt to locate a more accessible, central location for our office and increase the visibility of campus emergency phones.
Given the funding allocated to us, we continue to perform well in area 1. In area 2, we currently only have staffing for one Officer at night on the main campus. We need to have an additional Officer to ensure a rapid and effective response to major emergencies. In area 3, we still need to have dedicated, trained dispatchers/unit secretaries for the Police Department. In Area 4 we have made a significant amount of progress. We have provided trainings on campus safety, including “Shots Fired on Campus”, “Dealing with Difficult Students,” "Bomb Threat Awareness", "Clery Act" and “Modern Policing” to both students and staff. We have also provided basic safety information to all incoming students at orientation and through College Connection classes. We performed a campus wide lockdown drill in December. We still need to purchase a report management system to integrate our reports, evidence and activity tracking. In Area 5, we still need to relocate to our own space more central to campus. Students need to be able to find us more quickly and easily. Students need to feel safe and secure when confiding in us and not be forced to speak to us in an open building full of other staff. The Emergency phones currently function, however, they are difficult to locate at night and do not meet current visual or access standards.
Environmental Scan:
Internal.
1) Strengths of the Program:
We have good support from administration and the Police Department staff is a professional, motivated team that supports the College's ideal of placing students first. We have developed robust internal training programs covering Defensive Tactics, Firearms, Tazer, Active Shooter and other areas.
2) Weaknesses:
The Butte College Police Department needs more staff to effectively patrol the campus properties, respond to calls for service, dispatch calls and respond to the needs of our college community.
External.
1) Opportunities:
The Butte College Police Department continues to work cooperatively with outside agencies for training and a coordinated response to emergencies.
2) Threats:
Addition of the Skyway Center, Cosmo and increased patrol presence at the Chico Center has spread staff thin. We are seeing an increase in students with special needs or social problems. We are also seeing a lack of respect for teachers and other authority figures which is contributing to poor behavior and class/campus disruptions. We also continue to see increases in mental illness and drug use which negatively affect our students and staff.
Strategy 1 - Strategy Title 1
The Butte College Police department will increase our ability to respond effectively to emergencies and critical incidents by increasing staffing levels, relocating to the center of campus, obtaining training, and purchasing proper equipment. The following is the minimum staffing level needed to provide quality service to the campus community:
BCPD Organization Chart:
Chief of Police full time (exists)
Police Sargent full time (exists)(Also Supervise Title IX investigations for the College)
Police Officer full time (exists)
Police Officer full time (exists)
Police Officer full time (exists)
Police Officer full time (needed)
Police Officer 195 day for backfill (vacant)
Community Service Officer full time (exists)(Also Title IX investigator for BC)
Community Service Officer full time (needs to be expanded from existing 24 hour)(When expanded, will be Title IX investigator for BC)
Unit Secretary / Dispatcher Evening Shift (needed)
Unit Secretary / Dispatcher Day Shift (needed)
Night Security Officer full time (needed to replace contracted work)
Night Security Officer part time (needed to replace contracted work)
With our remote location, emergency response time from outside the college is too long to be effective in either a critical incident or a medical emergency. Even at the Chico Center and Skyway Center, police response from the City of Chico can be delayed. We need to have the ability at all times to respond effectively and deal with emergencies quickly and efficiently.
Strategy 2 - Strategy Title 2
The Butte College Police Department is committed to service to the campus community. To this end we strive to provide any service needed by the campus community. We will continue to offer new and innovative services to students and staff, including education and crime prevention programs.
The College Police department provides non-traditional services such as vehicle lockout, jump starting, door unlocks, AED maintenance, escort service, safety training, crime prevention, education and others. By training students and staff to properly respond to emergencies, our effectiveness and the safety of our campus community will increase.
Strategy 3 - Strategy Title 3
The Butte College Police Department will make use of technology improvements to better serve the campus community.
Technological improvements will allow the Butte College Police Department to increase productivity, increase time spent on patrol, decrease paper use, increase the ability to track and predict crimes and increase communication with other agencies and the campus community.
The Police Department needs to relocate closer to the center of campus to reduce responce time and increase accessibility for students.
Item #1,5,6,8 Current Funds - 52190/53000 -$380,000 covers existing officers at current levels. There are no additional funds to increase hours or cover additional personel.
Item #2,3,4, Current Funds - 56410/56411 - The college police budget does not have any equipment funds available.
Item #7 - Current funding for the Elite Security Contract would cover all but approximately $2K.
| Original Priority | Program, Unit, Area | Resource Type | Account Number | Object Code | One Time Augment | Ongoing Augment |
| Description | Supporting Rationale | Potential Alternative Funding Sources | Prioritization Criteria | |||
| 1 | College Police | Personnel | 110002101677003 | 52320 | $0.00 | $38,770.00 |
| Authorization to increase hours alloted to one of our CSO Positions from 24 hours to 40 hours. | We currently have two Community Service Officer positions. One works 40 hours per week Saturday-Weds day shift. The other works 24 hours per week Friday-Sunday evening shift. I would like to increase the 24 hour position to 40 hours to provide CSO coverage daily. This would increase our effectiveness for emergency medical response, visibility and parking enforcement. By performing parking enforcement daily, this position will bring in revenue to offset of the cost of the increase. This position is also expected to assume partial responsibility for Title IX investigations. By increasing to 40 hours, we will have a Title IX investigator available 7 days per week. As a Title IX investigator, this position would be ensuring equity by performing these investigations. Research has shown a direct correlation between victims staying in school and how quickly and properly their cases were investigated. We would track the outcomes by tracking the number of Title IX cases investigated by this Officer. |
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| 2 | College Police | Operating Expenses | 110002101677003 | 56410 | $0.00 | $2,850.00 |
| Authorization to purchase ongoing Department Policy manual service through Lexipol | The department policy dictates actions taken by our Police Officers and needs to be kept up to date with current best practices, changes in law and changes in court case decisions. This service is currently in use by a Police departments in CA and other states. Lexipol is a legal firm that writes the policy, keeps it up to date and sends out training bulletins to keep Officers current and show proof of familiarity with policy. |
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| 3 | College Police | Operating Expenses | 110002101677003 | 56410 | $0.00 | $1,200.00 |
| Fund new cell phone based radio communication system through Verizon | This is instead of replacing our previous Radio system (cost estimated at $30K). This system uses cell towers and wifi to provide continuous communications for our Officers regardless of location. Our radio system was outdated and nearly non-functional. |
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| 4 | College Police | Equipment | 110002101677003 | 56410 | $9,700.00 | $1,800.00 |
| Purchase Report Management System software | This will bring our department to industry standard by allowing electronic filing of reports as required by the Butte County DA's office. It will allow the department to save resources by using a paperless filing system. It will save time by allowing electronic database searches for previous contacts, crime trends, stolen items, etc. This will facilitate accurate Cleary reporting as an automated feature of the program. It will automate tracking of calls for service and allow us to recognize trends and areas that need more attention. It will also make dispatch of Officers more efficient by showing live status of Officers engaged in calls. It will allow for tracking of time used on calls for service and help improve efficiency of the department. It will allow for tracking of improvement and evaluation of goals for future reviews. This price includes the purchase of 3 tablet computers and vehicle mounts to allow Officers to write reports and access information in their vehicles. |
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| 5 | College Police | Personnel | 110002101677003 - | 52190 | $0.00 | $70,850.00 |
| Authorization to hire new additional permanent College Police Officer | This position will add one additional College Police Officer. Current scheduling allows for only one officer to cover the main campus in the evening. By hiring one more officer, we will have two officers on the main campus in the evening. This will greatly enhance our ability to respond to and deal with a major problem such as an active shooter on campus. This will reduce back fill costs. |
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| 6 | College Police | Personnel | 110002101677003 | 52320 | $0.00 | $54,700.00 |
| Authorization to hire a Administrative Secretary 1, evening shift | This position would be used in the evening primarily to answer phones, and greet students at the front counter. This would give students a permanent college staff member that they could find and talk to in the evening on the main campus. Currently, no such person exists. They would also fill other support functions for the Police Department such as Dispatch, filing, and report submission, allowing Officers to spend more time on patrol. |
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| 7 | College Police | Personnel | 110002101677003 | 52190 | $0.00 | $2,000.00 |
| Authorization to hire 1.5 Security personell for night time coverage to eliminate expensive outside contract for same service | By hiring 1.5 security personnel would eliminate the need for contract security company and instead staff the 11:00pm to 7:00am shift with Butte College personnel. This would improve service to the students and staff of the college by providing consistency and higher quality employees. We would have direct oversight over these employees rather than trusting our campus resources to non-Butte College employees. The cost would cover the difference between what we currently pay Elite and the cost of hiring our own employees. The slight increase may be exaggerated and would be due to training and equipment purchase. |
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| 8 | College Police | Personnel | 110002101677003 | 52320 | $0.00 | $54,700.00 |
| Authorization to hire a Administrative Secretary 1, Day shift | This position would be used in the day time, primarily to answer phones, and greet students at the front counter. This would provide the Police department clerical support and dedicated dispatch in emergency situations. Currently, we borrow services from FPM employees who focus on other tasks. They would also fill other support functions for the Police Department such as filing, and report submission, allowing Officers to spend more time on patrol. |
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