DPS News

Donna Adams
Associate Director, Public Safety and Administrative & Technical Services Division
As an Associate Director, Donna’s responsibilities extend far and wide within the organization. Donna heads the administrative staff members who work in the Department’s main offices. This includes directing payroll, billing, and budget support functions, and occasionally also involves managing operations for the Chief when he is unavailable. Donna makes HR recommendations for the organization, coordinating an annual performance review process and oversees Administrative Manager area and Clery Compliance.

She oversees the Operations Support Commander (and the property and evidence, records and reports functions under the Commander), the Emergency Communications Center, the quartermaster, and courier services. Donna also supervises the Technical Services Manager, who coordinates all major IT equipment and maintenance for our camera systems, patrol car computing systems, and software upkeep. Donna is a member of the DPS Executive Leadership Team.

Donna was born in Michigan, and moved to Liverpool, NY as a young child. She attended SUNY-Albany, where she studied criminal justice, sociology, and theatre. She received a Master’s degree from the School of Information Studies in 2003.  She has worked for the Department of Public Safety for 20 years, and in many capacities, including a dispatcher, records manager, payroll system administrator, and even a server administrator on Novell Netware. She shifted to her current role in 2006, and now leads 20 DPS positions.

Donna says that she loves how her job affords her variety – every day is different. She enjoys working with a group of professionals and also interacting with students.

Outside of work, Donna loves to cook gourmet meals, and she is currently taking classes in creative nonfiction writing, at the College of Arts and Sciences.

Murder/Non-Negligent Manslaughter: the willful (non-negligent) killing of one human being by another.  NOTE:  Deaths caused by negligence, attempts to kill, assaults to kill, suicides, accidental deaths, and justifiable homicides are excluded.

Negligent Manslaughter:  the killing of another person through gross negligence.

Robbery: the taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody or control of a person or persons by force or threat of force or violence and/or by putting the victim in fear.

Aggravated Assault:  an unlawful attack by one person upon another for the purpose of inflicting severe or aggravated bodily injury.  This type of assault usually is accompanied by the use of a weapon or by means likely to produce death or great bodily harm.  It is not necessary that injury result from an aggravated assault when a gun, knife or other weapon is used which could or probably would result in a serious potential injury if the crime were successfully completed.

Burglary:  The unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or a theft.  For reporting purposes this definition includes: unlawful entry with intent to commit a larceny or a felony; breaking and entering with intent to commit a larceny; housebreaking; safecracking; and all attempts to commit any of the aforementioned.

Motor Vehicle Theft:  The theft or attempted theft of a motor vehicle. (Classify as motor vehicle theft all cases where automobiles are taken by persons not having lawful access, even though the vehicles are later abandoned – including joy riding)

Arson:  The willful or malicious burning or attempt to burn, with or without intent to defraud, a dwelling house, public building, motor vehicle or aircraft, or personal property of another, etc.

Illegal Weapons Possession:  The violation of laws or ordinances prohibiting the manufacture, sale, purchase, transportation, possession, concealment, or use of firearms, cutting instruments, explosives, incendiary devices or other deadly weapons. This classification encompasses weapons offenses that are regulatory in nature. Include in this classification: manufacture, sale, or possession of deadly weapons; carrying deadly weapons, concealed or openly; using, manufacturing, etc., of silencers; furnishing deadly weapons to minors; aliens possessing deadly weapons; and attempts to commit any of the above.

Drug Law Violations: The violation of laws prohibiting the production, distribution and/or use of certain controlled substances and the equipment or devices utilized in their preparation and/or use. The unlawful cultivation, manufacture, distribution, sale, purchase, use, possession, transportation or importation of any controlled drug or narcotic substance. Arrests for violations of state and local laws, specifically those relating to the unlawful possession, sale, use, growing, manufacturing, and making of narcotic drugs. The relevant substances include: opium or cocaine and their derivatives (morphine, heroin, codeine); marijuana; synthetic narcotics – manufactured narcotics which can cause true addiction (Demerol, methadone); and dangerous non-narcotic drugs (barbiturates, Benzedrine).

Liquor Law Violations:  The violation of state or local laws or ordinances prohibiting the manufacture, sale, purchase, transportation, possession, or use of alcoholic beverages, not including driving under the influence and drunkenness. Include in this classification: the manufacture, sale, transporting, furnishing, possessing, etc., of intoxicating liquor; maintaining unlawful drinking places; bootlegging; operating still; furnishing liquor to a minor or intemperate person; underage possession; using a vehicle for illegal transportation of liquor; drinking on train or public conveyance; and attempts to commit any of the above.

Sex Offenses – Forcible: Any sexual act directed against another person, forcibly and/or against that person’s will; or not forcibly or against the person’s will where the victim is incapable of giving consent. This category includes the following:

Forcible Rape is the carnal knowledge of a person, forcibly and/or against that person’s will; or not forcibly or against the person’s will where the victim is incapable of giving consent because of his/her temporary or permanent mental or physical incapacity (or because of his or her youth). This offense includes the forcible rape of both males and females.

Forcible Sodomy is oral or anal sexual intercourse with another person, forcibly and/or against that person’s will; or not forcibly or against the person’s will where the victim is incapable of giving consent because of his/her youth or because of his/her temporary or permanent mental or physical incapacity.

Sexual Assault with an Object is the use of an object or instrument to unlawfully penetrate, however slightly, the genital or anal opening of the body of another person, forcibly and/or against that person’s will; or not forcibly or against the person’s will where the victim is incapable of giving consent because of his/her youth or because of his/her temporary or permanent mental or physical incapacity.

Forcible Fondling is the touching of the private body parts of another person for the purpose of sexual gratification, forcibly and/or against that person’s will; or not forcibly or against the person’s will where the victim is incapable of giving consent because of his/her youth or because of his/her temporary or permanent mental incapacity. Forcible fondling includes “indecent liberties” and “child molesting.”

Sex Offenses – Non-forcible are incidents of unlawful, non-forcible sexual intercourse. Only two types of offenses are included in this definition:

Incest is non-forcible sexual intercourse between persons who are related to each other within the degrees wherein marriage is prohibited by law.

Statutory Rape is non-forcible sexual intercourse with a person who is under the statutory age of consent.

Thanks to the students in Professor Lawrence Popielinski’s Fall 2013 section of COM 117, we now have a series of creative new crime prevention and safety videos to share with you.

As part of a new collaboration with the Newhouse School, freshmen students in the class produced videos on a diverse range of topics, from safe travel around campus and off-campus to securing an off-campus residence over break.

You can find the videos embedded in a number of pages on our website, or you can visit our YouTube Channel for a full list of the videos.