Orlando FL April 9 2019

The University of Central Florida Police Department is hiring 12 new officers, an effort to meet the demands of the latest addition to the sprawling university: UCF Downtown.

About 7,700 UCF and Valencia College students are expected to use the downtown Orlando campus slated to open this fall, which is housed within the 68-acre Creative Village that will include student apartments, education buildings and mixed income housing.

The Creative Village is south of West Concord Street and east of North Parramore Avenue, on the site of the former Amway Arena, an area previously serviced by the Orlando Police Department.

But an agreement between OPD and UCFPD gives campus police jurisdictional authority over 11 locations in the downtown property that are leased by the city to the university.

Those include the area that will soon become the Dr. Phillips Academic Commons, two parking garages, student apartments and other pedestrian and educational spaces, the agreement shows. Most are situated on the south end of the Creative Village.

A retail space UCF rented from the city will serve as the agency’s downtown police headquarters. It sits between parking garages on the corner of West Amelia Street and North Hughey Avenue.

OPD already has a higher concentration of officers in the downtown area than most locations in the city, and plans to navigate the new jurisdictional boundaries just like those that separate OPD and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office: through close communication.

“Our plan is to work in partnership with UCF to address everything that will come with an increase in students,” OPD spokesman Sgt. Eduardo Bernal said.

Cmdr. Scott Freeman of UCFPD’s Regional Campuses division said campus police have access to OPD’s patrol channels on their radios and are working to give OPD access to UCFPD’s transmissions.

The 12 new UCFPD recruits, six of whom are in training and expected to begin patrol in June, will work at the main UCF campus in east Orange. Veteran officers who “know the way that we like to do police work at UCFPD” will be transferred downtown, Freeman said.

The cost of hiring is about $114,865 per officer, according to department spokeswoman Courtney Gilmartin. Those funds come from the agency’s annual budget, she said.

Sixteen officers will make up the department’s Regional Patrol Division, assigned to rotate among UCF Downtown, the UCF Lake Nona Medical Center and the Rosen College of Hospitality Management in southwest Orlando, Freeman said.

He said the agency will keep at least two officers at the downtown campus at all times, one officer at the Lake Nona campus and one at the Rosen College campus.

 “Safety and security for our students, faculty and staff is our number one priority and we plan to provide the same level of service that we give on the main campus to our downtown campus,” he said.

Also assigned downtown: the Police Department’s new K-9 duo, Officer Jerad Engel and a Labrador named Blue that is trained to detect explosives. They will work on a rotating 12-hour shift with another K-9 pair, Freeman said.

UCF police will also service the campus’ “Blue Light” emergency phones, which like ones on the main campus, will be set up around the Creative Village and dispatch officers when the red button is pressed.

The Orlando Fire Department will continue to handle any medical calls that arise in UCFPD’s jurisdiction, though officers respond to those, too, Freeman said. If any calls require additional assistance, the agency can always ask its neighbors at OPD for help.

“All their services are a phone call away and vice versa,” he said.

Orlando Sentinel

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