Calvin Senate Approves New Use of Force Policy

April 14, 2008 == MEDIA ADVISORY

Summary: Calvin College has approved a Use of Force policy that includes arming, for the first time in school history, select members of the campus safety staff.

Full story see http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2007-08/use-of-force.htm

It's been a busy spring for Calvin College campus safety director Bill Corner.

In recent weeks he has led both incident command system training for the college and the adoption of a new Use of Force policy that will include arming some campus safety supervisors for the first time in the history of the college.

A 1989 Calvin graduate, Corner returned to his alma mater in 2005 as director of campus safety. In fact, it was a stint as a student worker in the campus safety department at Calvin that launched Corner on his eventual career path, one that included 14 years with the Grand Rapids Police Department.

Since his return to Calvin he has spent a lot of time thinking about how to make Calvin's already-safe campus even safer. He's placed a strong emphasis on educating people on Calvin's campus about how to make themselves safer. And in doing so he began to worry that one of the populations not as safe as it could be was his own officers!

The new Use of Force policy, which also bans the possession of weapons on campus, addresses that oversight, and, Corner believes, makes everyone on campus safer as a result.

The Use of Force policy gives step-by-step details on the force considered necessary and reasonable in responding to various types of scenarios with the goals in each case being to save lives, prevent injury and overcome resistance. It also spends a lot of time talking about training, which Corner said is the critical component to the whole plan.

"The policy requires regular training," he said. "It doesn't work without the training."

Supervisors authorized to carry a firearm will be tested four times a year and will undergo tests for marksmanship and drills that test their ability to react in specific circumstances. In addition, said Corner, supervisors who have been authorized to carry a firearm will all have been former law enforcement officers employed by a public law enforcement agency who left such agency while in good standing, will all possess a valid State of Michigan concealed carry weapons permit, and will all have passed all required background checks and psychological evaluations.

Corner noted that how campus safety was equipped to protect the campus has become of increasing interest to a wide variety of folks connected to the college, including students, parents and employees.

"We need to be able to respond to a threat in a safe and timely manner," he said. "Now we can."

Corner expects that the new measures will be in place by September 2008.

Contact Corner at 616-526-6751

-end-
Received on Mon Apr 14 09:12:40 2008