Effective July 1, Parking and Transportation Services staff and drivers will assume responsibility and oversight of the University’s Safety Escort Shuttle Services program. The change is in response to recommendations provided to the University by Loretta Lynch in her comprehensive review of the Department of Public Safety (DPS), completed earlier this year.
To learn more, visit news.syr.edu.
Dear Students, Faculty and Staff:
I hope that the start to your summer is going well. Despite the vast majority of our community being away from campus for the summer months, we have been very busy at the Department of Public Safety (DPS).
We continue to implement recommendations made by former Attorney General Loretta Lynch. I want to highlight some of the progress:
Again, this is just a highlight of the work achieved to date. To review the status of all recommendations, please visit the DPS website.
As a reminder, if you have any information about an incident on our campus, please call DPS at 315.443.2224. You can anonymously report non-emergency information to DPS through the Silent Witness tool or the Rave Guardian mobile app.
Stay safe and have a terrific summer!
Sincerely,
Chief Bobby Maldonado
Dear Students, Faculty and Staff:
Congratulations to all students who received degrees over the weekend. I commend and applaud you for your accomplishments, especially under the circumstances we have all experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. To all other students and University community members, I wish you all a healthy and restful summer.
As I approach my retirement, I want to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the Syracuse University community. During the past six years, I have been fortunate to serve an outstanding student body. Through challenges and successes, our students have helped to make the Department of Public Safety (DPS) a better law enforcement agency. It has been my privilege and honor to serve as your chief and I wish you all warmest regards.
With that being said, I want to provide a status update on our investigations into recent bias incidents.
April 29: An unknown subject completed an online form using language that was derogatory to Asian individuals. Since then, we have:
May 2: A student reported being called a racial slur by the occupant of a vehicle driving by. To investigate, we have:
May 12: A group of students, tabling on the Einhorn Family Walk, reported an individual, unaffiliated with the University, stopped by the table and made bias comments about the subject of their student group. The students reported to DPS that the conversation and the individual’s erratic behavior made them uncomfortable, enough in fact to report the suspicious encounter. In response to this incident, we:
May 15: Two separate off-campus bias incidents were reported. The first occurred on Saturday, May 15, near the corner of Westcott Street and Hawthorne Street. A group of students reported a vehicle driving by with the occupants shouting language that was derogatory and offensive to the LGBTQ community. On the same day, another student reported as they were walking down University Avenue, toward Madison Street, a vehicle drove by that also had occupants shouting language that was derogatory and offensive to the LGBTQ community. DPS has:
If you have information about this case or others, please call DPS at 315.443.2224. You can also anonymously report non-emergency information to DPS through the Silent Witness tool or the Rave Guardian mobile app.
Any bias-motivated incident reported to DPS will be posted on our public site, so that our campus community can remain informed. You can also report a bias incident and receive support through the STOP Bias website.
You can subscribe to receive reports on the Bias Incident Reports page.
I look forward to sharing a few more updates with you over the upcoming months before I retire.
Sincerely,
Chief Bobby Maldonado
The Syracuse University Department of Public Safety (DPS) will conduct a test of the Orange Alert Campus Crisis Alert Notification System on Tuesday, May 11 at 3:10 p.m. It will be a full test of the system which includes notifications sent via email, text message, and voice call. The test will also include the Orange Alert outdoor siren system on the University’s North and South campuses. The sirens will be activated for two minutes at 3:10 p.m.
To learn more, visit news.syr.edu.
Dear Students, Faculty and Staff:
With more people being vaccinated and the desire to celebrate the end of the academic year, please remember public health guidance still recommends that you wear your mask, maintain social distancing practices, and gather with no more than 10 people only if your space allows for 6 feet of distance between each person. For more information, visit the Stay Safe website.
In this monthly update, I will address:
Loretta Lynch Report Recommendation Progress
As we continue our work on the recommendations from the Loretta Lynch report, we have set up a page on our website to share the status of our work.
We will be updating this webpage regularly but will also share major updates in this monthly email communication.
New Peace Officer Academy
I am pleased to announce that we will be hosting a peace officer academy beginning this summer. The position was just recently posted to sujobopps.com and we are actively recruiting. From the Loretta Lynch report, we have made many positive changes to our academy training program and we look forward to adding new individuals to our team.
Cyber Security
Scammers are becoming more creative every day. They are sending phishing emails and text messages that claim to be from people, businesses or organizations you know. Please take a moment to review important tips on how to not fall victim to these scams from the ITS Security department.
Social media is another place where scammers are getting your information. Be wary of allowing too much personal information to be made public, including your full name, date of birth, contact information, location, etc. Make sure to review your privacy settings and set up two-step authentication when you can to help make your account more secure.
Monthly Bias Update
Since my communication last month, I have no new updates to share on the status of our investigations. As we do have updates, we will update our chart on the website, and share any developments in this monthly email. It is also never too late to come forward with information. You can call the DPS at 315.443.2224, submit information anonymously via the Silent Witness tool or the Rave Guardian mobile app. In addition, to report a bias incident or to receive support, visit the Stop Bias website.
I wish all our students the best of luck as they wrap up the remainder of the semester.
Sincerely,
Chief Bobby Maldonado
