iXP Develops New Communications Center Standard Operating Procedures for Syracuse University Department of Public Safety

Sector: Higher Education

Focus: Standard Operating Procedures

Started: 2003

Situation

Syracuse University Department of Public Safety (SUDPS) provides police and security services to Syracuse University. There were numerous policies, procedures, and directives in the SUDPS's library of guiding documents, most dating back to 1992. While their library addressed the full scope of campus police operations, this project was intended to address those policies and procedures that guided the operations of the Communications Center. Because the Communications Center provides its service across a wide spectrum of police and safety services, the entire scope of department policies provided was examined for their relevance to the Communications Center.

Solution

iXP was contracted to provide professional services related to the University's Department of Public Safety Communications Center. This specific project involved two phases:

1. Phase I: Assess the existing state of SUDPS communications standard operating procedures and develop an outline of procedural requirements that met the standards of the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA)
2. Phase II: Create and deliver new SOPs according to the availability of information and to the extent that the SOPs address practices and procedures had been developed and implemented.

In order to provide the SUDPS with a comprehensive approach to assessing existing SOPs and to develop a list of additional policies required to be CALEA compliant, the project was approached from a number of perspectives. First, a list of industry standard policies was built using the policy inventory from other institutions providing similar services to the SUDPS. Second, that list was compared to three national standards: CALEA, Underwriters Laboratories (Standards for Central Station Monitoring Centers) and National Fire Protection Association (NFPA72 - Alarm Systems). Finally, the proposed list of SOPs was compared against the SUDPS's existing library of policies and procedures. By performing this analysis, iXP was able to produce a series of recommendations in Phase I.

For Phase II, iXP prepared a comprehensive analysis matrix listing:

1. the recommended policy title,
2. its relevance to industry standard,
3. whether it is a new policy requirement,
4. if it existed, what was is its policy number and title, and
5. recommendations pertaining to that specific policy

Results

As a result of this project, Syracuse University received a high-level, comprehensive library of Policies and Procedures for its Communications Center, as well as a methodology for maintaining and updating the library in a consistent fashion, to enhance the efficiency of the center's operations.

Value Delivered. Problem Solved.