Community Oriented Policing Strategies

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The NIU Community Oriented Policing Strategies Unit (COPS) is a specialized team that uses proactive and hands-on measures to maintain and ensure the safety of our students. We use the latest innovations and insights to mitigate criminal activity around the NIU campus and surrounding areas.

The COPS Unit uses criminal analysis to identify crime hot spots. Then directed missions, saturated patrols and other solutions are put in place. For example: if we receive multiple calls about suspicious activity in a specific area we will have the COPS in that area during a certain time frame to identify the suspicious person(s) and deter future criminal activity. This kind of proactive problem solving directly improves the NIU community as a whole and helps us to maintain a high level of safety throughout the campus community.

Members of the COPS Unit also work to create collaborative partnerships with key members of the university community and provide crime prevention education and safety awareness presentations to the community. The presentations develop a transparent understanding of the police role in the community and how to meet safety goals with the community’s help. These efforts help us to remain proactive about the safety of our students, staff and faculty while also helping to develop relationships with the surrounding community members.