Campus police and security services are expected to protect college and university communities. A lot of them, however, have limited authority compared the sworn law enforcement. In the absence of the power to arrest, their recourse in resolving conflict within the campus relies on communication and building rapport and trust with the members of the community they serve. This webinar shares knowledge, skills, and experience on how to effectively protect communities and create compliance in such situations.

Alex Lucero is a retired police officer, former instructor at Northern Arizona Regional Training Academy, adjunct associate professor teaching criminal justice courses at Yavapai Community College, and currently the Assistant Director of Campus Safety and Security at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona. Megan Price is an expert in the Insight approach to conflict analysis and resolution, teaches Conflict Resolution at the master’s level at George Mason University in Virginia and Royal Roads University in British Columbia, and is the Founder and Director of the Center for Applied Insight Conflict Resolution (CAICR).

Specifics of this session include:

• An overview of the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona and its campus safety and security unit’s composition, mission, and roles and responsibilities.
• The primary difference of campus policing to city or county law enforcement in terms of legal authority particularly limited arrest powers.
• The challenges that come with the limited authority that affects campus police’s ability to investigate and resolve cases.
• The opportunities for leveraging engagement and communication that present as a result of the limited authority.
• The benefits of communication in building rapport, relationships, openness and trust, facilitating information gathering, and conflict-resolution and problem-solving.
• A rundown of the most common conflicts that the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University campus safety and security tend to deal with.
• Insight policing as a valuable tool to help manage common conflicts and issues that campus police and even law enforcement as a whole face in their job.
• Case examples where Insight Policing would have been useful to prevent escalating interactions into emotionally-fueled arguments.
• How Insight Policing accelerates the learning of beneficial skills to law enforcement that would probably take years of experience to hone.
• The three key skills to learn in Insight Policing.
  • Notice: The importance of this skill in recognizing conflict behavior and the specific things that we should notice and look out for.
  • Verify: The value of verifying, communication skills that can be utilized to verify, a video demonstrating how to verify in a conflict situation, and what can be achieved through this step.
  • Get curious: The power of curiosity, asking questions to discover what’s the threat and the defense, and video clips that show how to focus on these two goals.
• How the preceding skill sets the stage up for the following step and their ability to foster communication amidst conflict and get to the root of the issue.

Questions raised by the webinar participants are about:

• Training for Insight Policing.
• Getting officers to learn communication skills.
• The benefits and/or harm of asking non-sequitur questions.
• Getting campus police officers sworn in as certified officers.

Other Webinars with this Presenter

• May 10:  Authority without Arrest: Resolving Conflict and Gaining Compliance in Campus Policing (this webinar)
• Sept 1: Positive Impact: Connecting and Communicating with Justice-Involved Youth

Or click here to view and register for other upcoming ASEBP webinars or National Sheriffs Association webinars on the JCH Platform.

Resources and Handouts

• Handout: Get Curious in the Face of Conflict – Takeaways
• Handout: Insight Policing: Conflict Resolution for Law Enforcement
• Link: Insight Policing Resource page with list of Videos
• Book Referenced: An Anatomy of Every Day Arguments by Marnie Jull

Audience Comments

• “Easy breakdown of steps for conflict de-escalation. This is something that anyone can use; however, I like that one of the instructors applied it to his duty as a campus officer.” — Charles
• “Specific conflict resolution tactic,… it is interesting and the concept is certainly worth trying.” — Evan
• “I learned that across the board that we are doing the same job that requires the same skillset to operate effectively.” — Todd
• “All of the webinar was very valuable.” — Tracy

The American Society of Evidence-Based Policing is a non-profit organization started by working police officers designed to drive the national conversation towards ensuring that the least harmful, most effective, fairest, and safest strategies are employed to prevent crime, reduce harm, and improve community wellness.