Grant-Funded UI Officers Will Focus on Preventative Measures

A federal grant will enable the University of Illinois' Police Department to do more outreach tied to a number of the more serious crimes committed on the Urbana campus.

More than $600,000 from the U.S. Department of Justice will provide for the hiring of two full-time crime prevention specialists and one full-time crime analyst. The focus of the grant is using community policing to address issues surrounding sexual assault, battery, robbery, and alcohol abuse.

Because these new officers won't be on patrol, U of I Sergeant Joan Fiesta says the specialists can communicate more with parent and student groups.

"Because of the energy from crime alerts and some of the concerns that parents have on campus, we want to be able to tap into that and use them as a resource," said Fiesta. "So we will have two people to help organize that, and make sure that those things don't fall through the cracks."

Meanwhile, the analyst will look at crime data. Fiesta says all the specialists will require about special training, but she expects the three to be working by July after the hires take place sometime in December.

The grant comes through the COPS hiring program, or Community Oriented Policing Services.