UW Gazette, September 27, 1995
     
     Five of UW's police officers graduated on Thursday
after completing a new four-week course at Humber College
specifically designed for university security staff.
     Officers Randy Jardin and Craig Emick graduated from
the course's first session at the end of June, while
officers Cindy Brown, Sharon Lewis and Chris Landry
graduated from the second session in Toronto on August 4.
     University secretary Lois Claxton, the senior UW
official who's responsible for the police service,
presented graduation certificates to the five at a luncheon
attended by about 30 people in South Campus Hall's Flamingo
Room.
     The course, developed by the Humber College Centre for
Law and Justice Studies and the Ontario Association of
College and University Security Administrators, replaces a
12-week program at the Ontario Police College in Aylmer
that is much more expensive and less relevant to the needs
of university policing.
     "The level of training for our purposes at UW will not
be lowered because of the change in venue or the reduction
in course length," said UW director of security Al
MacKenzie.
     "Police college training, such as high-speed driving
and weapons training, are not necessary for a campus force.
But even though these things weren't necessary, we couldn't
get a modified package."
     The Humber course provides training in communications,
human rights issues, the criminal code, provincial statutes
of special interest on campuses (generally liquor-related
offences, theft and mischief), investigative techniques and
human relations. About 30 security staff from Ontario
universities and colleges attended the first session of the
course, and another 20 enrolled in the second session.
     Brown, who has previously taken law and security
courses at Conestoga College, was most impressed with the
human relations course: "It impressed on us that we have to
make ourselves available for the community. Interaction is
important."
     Landry was also pleased with the course's cultural
sensitivity.
     "It opened our eyes to the different people in a
university setting, and the course reminded us that we're
providing a service to customers - university staff and
students."
     Completion of the Humber course is a major step for
officers seeking "special constable" status, a designation
that is given to officers who have also completed use-of
force-training, CPR and first aid training and have been
approved by the chief of the Waterloo Regional Police Ser
vice, the Waterloo Police Services board and the Ontario
Civilian Police Commission.
     MacKenzie explained that a special constable has the
full powers of arrest, search and seizure. "They have the
same authority as any other officer in Ontario, but they're
acting in our own jurisdiction, the UW campus."
     The UW security staff includes 14 special constables.
MacKenzie said the five security officers who did the
Humber course have now completed the requirements for
special constable status, but co-ordinating the paperwork
between Toronto and Waterloo may leave them waiting two to
three months for confirmation.
     In the meantime, still have only the same authority as
regular citizens but are under the direction of special
constables.