Univ. of Michigan Combines Security Forces

The University of Michigan (UM) has reorganized its three major security programs into one unit—the Division of Public Safety and Security (DPSS)—after a report released Oct. 19 noted that the departments failed to cooperate effectively.

The new DPSS will combine the university's Department of Public Safety (DPS), Housing Security and Hospitals & Health Centers Security, the  Michigan Daily  reports. DPS, knows as the University Police, is an armed police force, while Housing Security and Hospital Security have non-sworn officers who monitor residence halls and hospital buildings respectively.

University officials hired Vermont-based security consulting firm Margolis Healy & Associates to conduct a study of the school's security agencies, after discovering that administrators at UM's Health System delayed reporting to police for six months that former medical resident Stephen Jenson allegedly possessed child pornography. The report stated specifically that there was a "systematic lack of mutual respect and appreciation" between Hospital Security and DPS.