Skip to main content

Public Safety Study

SMCCCD Home Public Safety Public Safety Study Public Safety Study

Public Safety Study


BACKGROUND
More than a year and a half ago, the District commissioned a comprehensive study to review the operations, structure, policies and plans of our public safety program.  To do this, the District engaged the nationally-recognized campus safety firm of Margolis Healy to conduct an extensive review, which included benchmarking against community colleges in the Bay Area, across the state and throughout the nation.  As part of Margolis Healy’s assessment they also identified industry best practices, and they provided the District with 71 recommendations for consideration.  The full list of recommendations is linked below.

RECOMMENDATIONS
The District administration agrees with nearly all of the recommendations offered in the Margolis Healy report and believes that, if implemented, they would advance the District’s public safety efforts.

There is one overarching recommendation, however, which the District’s administration DOES NOT AGREE with – creating a sworn and armed police department.  Margolis Healy has recommended that the District transition the Public Safety Department to a sworn and armed police department.  Their rationale is sound and their evidence is credible.  However, the District’s administrative team does not agree with Margolis Healy’s recommendation and will be recommending to the Board of Trustees the District not undertake this approach.  There is a portfolio of factors that, when taken together, have led the senior leadership to its conclusion, including the fact that our campuses are safe places to learn, work and visit.  Having a sworn and armed police department is not congruent with the approach the District wants to pursue in establishing a more community-based, -focused, and -accessible public safety strategy.  Further, when briefing our local law enforcement partners on this recommendation, they were unanimous in firmly opposing the District establishing its own police department.  These, along with other factors, led to the District administration preliminarily rejecting this recommendation.

STAKEHOLDER FEEDBACK
As occurred in the beginning of this process, Margolis Healy conducted extensive campus outreach to faculty, staff and students to gather feedback about their perceptions, feelings and concerns about the District’s public safety operations.  Likewise, to thoroughly process the recommendations that have been outlined in the Margolis Healy report, District representatives are in the process of conducting briefings for the Academic Senates, Classified Senates, Associated Students and President’s Cabinets of each campus, along with the unions and other stakeholder groups such as local law enforcement partners.  In all, more than 20 briefings will have occurred during which the District administration’s preliminary plans for implementing the Margolis Healy report recommendations have been discussed and input sought from the stakeholder groups.  Valuable feedback has been provided and those comments are being reviewed carefully by the District administration and the District’s Public Safety Committee.

PUBLIC FORUMS
Faculty, staff and students are important participant in this process and we want your feedback.  There will be two public forums on each campus.  The dates, times and locations are listed below.  These forums are open to all faculty, staff and students.  If you are interested in attending but unable to attend a forum on your campus, you are welcome to attend a forum on one of the other campuses. 

Cañada College:

  • Tuesday, April 10 – 5:00 p.m. (Building 6, Room 101/102)
  • Wednesday, April 11 – 2:30 p.m. (Building 2, Room 10)

College of San Mateo:

  • Tuesday, April 3 – 5:30 p.m. (Building 10, Room 468)
  • Wednesday, April 11 – 1:00 p.m. (Building 10, Room 468)

Skyline College:

  • Monday, April 9 – 2:00 p.m. (Building 6, Room 202)
  • Thursday, April 12 – 5:30 p.m. (Building 6, Room 202)

District Office:

  • Monday, April 9 – 11:30 a.m. (Board Room)


MARGOLIS HEALY REPORT
For your information and reference, you can access the following documents on the District’s website by clicking the titles below: