Continually improve the support services to internal constituents.

To enhance crime prevention and safety across campus.

To enhance crime prevention and safety across campus, the University Police Department will actively engage in making presentations.  These presentations are normally requested through the Department of Residence Life, Enrollment Management, and other requesting departments.  The purpose of these presentations is to inform the campus community of current trends recognized by this department and to provide general advice.  In order to evaluate this, our department will compare crime statistics for reported on campus crimes and conduct a survey of the participants who attend the presentation made by the officer.  The purpose of the survey will be to evaluate how the material is received and if the program needs changes.

After reviewing the information collected, the following information was derived:
The survey was not implemented in an appropriate time period to be effectively used to gauge responses.  Thus, the survey was not used to and there are no results available.
Campus Crime Statistics, as compared from 2005 through 2010 indicated decreases in most categories as reported to the Department of Education.

After the objective was decided upon to review participant surveys of presentations made, the survey design and implementation process was not completed in a timely manner.  Therefore, the results for this objective will not be measured in this manner.  However, it should me noted that from September 2010 to May 2011 a total of 40 presentation were made to campus groups.

In examining crime statistics from 2005 to 2010, an overall decrease was noted in categories except for two.  The two categories were Burglary (up by one additional report) and Motor Vehicle Thefts (up by one additional report.  2011 statistics are still in process for the reporting year and will conclude on December 31, 2011.

The most notable drop in was in Liquor Law Violations, Drug Abuse Violations, and Weapons Violations.  Police Officers within this department over the last several years have actively enforced these laws on campus.  Additionally, the University has provided much programming associated with Alcohol and Substance Abuse issues.  A combination of these programs could have impacted the statistics in a positive manner.  Therefore, based from statistics, SHSH remains a safe campus gleamed from statistical information only.

The information in this objective was not complete; however, the data also indicated that the University Police Department is continuing with it objectives and goals.  In the next fiscal reporting year, a survey will be implemented for the programs that the department delivers to the University community.  We have recognized that these programs have become vast opportunity for us with our relationship with the faculty, staff, and most importantly the students of SHSU.  Our department will continue with this outreach and our enforcement efforts to provide a campus that is conducive to the academic process.

Efficient use of resources

Provide efficient operations in comparison to similar Universities.

The University Police Department will evaluate and compare number of students enrolled in a similar university and the number of full time police officers who work at the institution.  This comparison will help the department to evaluate and compare how other university police department personel compare to current full time officer to student ratio.

Currently, through our experience, our administrative staff has noted that other university police departments are set up in a similar manner and provide the same basic services as we do.  Also, departments outside of university law enforcement gauge population to officer ratios to help determine a need for officer resources.  A general number that is used for comparisons is one officer for every 1,000 in population.

An analysis will be conducted of five other University Police Departments of similar institutions of higher education.  Universities were selected from our system and from neighboring approximates.  These ratios were then compared our University Police Department to determine if we provide adequate or similar policing levels as other universities.  The five Universities examined were Texas State University, Lamar State University, Stephen F. Austin State University, the University of Houston, and the University of Texas at Tyler.  During this analysis, it was learned that the SHSU Police Department has similar ratios as other compared University Police Departments.

The evaluation of the five other similar universities indicated that the SHSU Police Department has similar resources when compared officer to student ratios.  the results of evaluation were as follows:

SHSU has approximately 1 officer for every 850 students;
Texas State University has approximately 1 officer for every 970 students;
Lamar State University has approximately 1 officer for every 850 students;
SFA University has approximately 1 officer for every 480 students;
UT at Tyler has approximately 1 officer for every 545 students; and
The University of Houston has approximately 1 officer for every 820 students.

The comparison indicates that the SHSU Police Department is providing a similar number of officers per students and other University Police Departments provide at their respective institutions.

The department will evaluate the number of parking citations issued to the number of parking citations that are paid per year.  Although this is not a main staple of our budget, the parking citation revenue is used to offset the revenue not generated through the sale of parking permits.  This indicator can provide trends and better help plan for future budget needs.

The Parking and Transportation Office will examine the number of parking citations paid versus the number that were issued.  From this date, a percent change from year to year will be evaluated to determine a level or increasing or decreasing percentage.  As of May of 2011, as compared from fiscal year 2009, the department has seen a decrease in the amount of revenue generated from parking citations issued on campus. 

Fine revenue was compared to administrative parking citations issued from fiscal years 2009 thru this fiscal year.  In all categories, the trend observed indicates that less tickets are being written and revenues earned have also decreased.  In fiscal year 2009 26,130 parking citations were issued and $470,452.96 was collected in fines.  Thus far this fiscal year (May 2011), 19,123 administrative parking citations have been issued and $333,581.88 has been collected.

One of the issues facing the department with administrative parking citations is that we rely on student assistants to conduct parking enforcement.  These students are not full time employees and generally only work for the department twenty hours a week.  In addition, the most congested time period for parking is generally between 8 AM and 1 PM on any given day of the week.  Since we rely on students for parking enforcement, we compete with the school for our labor source.  Many of our student employees also have class during this time period.  Full time parking enforcement officers may be a better source of enforcement for parking on campus.

At this current time, the department does not have a program that can identify which administrative citations have been paid, dismissed, voided, or appealed.  Once the citation is issued, the data is moved to an account to whom the citation belongs.  The only information that we currently have access to is the account and if the balance has been paid.

In this goal, the department analyzed two areas:  police office staffing vs. the student population on campus; and parking citation revenue vs. the number of parking citations issued.  The findings indicated that the University Police Department has similar officer to student ratios as other similar four year universities in our area.  The Parking & Transportation citations and revenue findings indicated that the number of citations issued each year has decreased and the amount of revenue collected has decreased.

The University Police Department will continue to follow the growth of the University to maintain a adequate number of police officers to sufficiently provide police services on campus.  Although there is no set number designated, it is a common practice in our profession to provide police officers based on a ratio of one officer to every one thousand in population.  But, each jurisdiction has different priorities based on their community standards and what type of services they want offered in their society.  With that in mind, ratios can be very misleading. 

The Parking & Transportation Office has experienced a three year trend that has resulted in fewer citations and less revenue collected.  Over the last three years, we have lost parking areas due to new construction.  One parking lot (the Stadium parking area) was renovated and parking was increased.  Also, during Fall 2010 we noted that the Stadium Parking Lot was filling to capacity on Tuesday and Thursdays.  Our analysis does not indicate a specific reason for a decrease in both citations and revenue; there are not quotas for citations issued.  Our department does rely on students to issue parking citations since we do not have a full time staff dedicated to parking enforcement.  Therefore we have to work around student schedules.  Our department will continue to hire students, within our budgetary means, to meet scheduling to continue issuing citations.  Additionally, we have implemented a new citation software program, along with a new appeals process.  It is hoped that this will help reduce the number of citations that do not get resolved during the year.