Colleges & Universities: An Untapped Partner in Proactive Crime Prevention

Do you a college or university near your jurisdiction?

If so, you may have one of the most overlooked partners in proactive crime prevention sitting just down the road.

When people think about key partners in crime prevention, they often think of other justice-system partners, community organizations, schools, service providers, or local government. All of those matter. But colleges and universities can also play an important role, and too often, they are overlooked.

That matters because there is real capacity there. The United States has more than 17,500 state and local law enforcement agencies, along with thousands of colleges and universities. That means there are thousands of opportunities for practical partnerships that could help agencies and communities think more strategically about crime prevention.

And this is not just theoretical. There are already colleges and universities contributing to this kind of work in meaningful ways. For example:

• George Mason University — The Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy works to connect research and practice and has developed projects, briefs, and translation tools to help agencies apply evidence-based policing in real-world settings.

• Arizona State University — The Center for Problem-Oriented Policing provides problem-specific guides, tool guides, case studies, and practical resources designed to help police address real crime and disorder problems.

• Michigan State University — The Police Staffing Observatory focuses on evidence-based police workforce research, strategy, and operations, helping agencies think more clearly about staffing, deployment, and workload.

• University of Maryland — The Maryland Crime Research and Innovation Center builds partnerships between government, academia, and practitioners, integrates data, and evaluates strategies aimed at preventing and reducing crime.

• University of Cincinnati — Its criminal justice work has long contributed to research and practice around problem solving, place-based policing, and evidence-based approaches that help agencies think more strategically about prevention.

• John Jay College of Criminal Justice — John Jay has been closely connected to crime-prevention, legitimacy, and violence-reduction work through research and practice-oriented partnerships in major cities.

• Rutgers University — Rutgers has also contributed to research and collaboration involving crime patterns, place-based prevention, and other work that can help inform proactive policing and prevention strategies.

This is just a short list of many examples.

There are thousands of colleges and universities across the country, and many of them may have faculty, researchers, students, centers, or related resources that could become valuable partners in proactive crime prevention.

What they bring to the table will vary, but the potential value is real.

These kinds of partners may be able to help agencies and communities:

·       analyze repeat crime and disorder problems more deeply,

·       review patterns, trends, and underlying causes,

·       help match the right strategy to the right problem,

·       support surveys, feedback tools, and stakeholder input,

·       assess what is working and what may need to change,

·       help turn good ideas into more structured, realistic action,

·       assist with research, evaluation, or data interpretation,

·       help communicate findings and lessons learned to stakeholders and the community.

Some institutions do this through formal centers and institutes. Others do it through individual faculty, researchers, graduate students, interns, or informal collaboration. It does not always have to be a large project or formal agreement to be valuable.

Sometimes the opportunity is much closer, and much more achievable, than people think.

A college or university does not have to be in your chain of command to be part of the solution.

A professor does not have to wear a badge to help analyze a problem.

A student does not have to be sworn to contribute meaningful work.

The point is simple: some of the most valuable partners in proactive crime prevention may already be nearby, but they are not always being considered.

For law enforcement, higher education, researchers, and other key partners alike, this is worth asking:

Who is nearby that has knowledge, skills, time, or interest that could help

proactively address, deter, and prevent crime?

And if those partnerships are not being explored, what opportunities are being missed?

There are thousands of agencies.

There are thousands of higher-ed institutions.

Between them are thousands of chances to think more deeply, act more strategically, and build safer communities together.