UMass police union upset with plan to use private security at Mount Ida campus
AMHERST MA Aug 4 2018 — University of Massachusetts police union members are raising concerns about UMass hiring unarmed security guards to patrol the newly acquired Mount Ida campus in Newton.
But UMass officials said members of the Mount Ida campus community will be well protected by the private security as well as assistance from the Newton police.
The Mount Ida campus will have a “small population of about 200 total staff and students on campus this fall as UMass Amherst begins operating the facility. Less than 100 students will be living on campus,” UMass spokesman Edward Blaguszewski said in a statement.
Internal Security Associates took over the 75-acre Newton campus Tuesday. UMass acquired the campus in April after a merger between Mount Ida and Lasell College fell through.
Justin Green, president of New England Police Benevolent Association Local 190, in a press release said contracting unarmed private security guards is an unacceptable public safety risk. “(It’s) an outrage to the UMass-Amherst police supervisors and officers,” he said.
With the Amherst campus operating Mount Ida, the same standard of police protection should be maintained there, he said.
Union officials met with UMass officials to offer proposals, but the union said their ideas were rejected.
Blaguszewski said UMass is very comfortable with Internal Security Associates, a private firm with a background in campus security, patrolling the Mount Ida campus and contacting Newton police if they need help.
In a statement, he said UMass Environmental Health and Safety is using its emergency alerts system for the Newton campus. He said two full-time residential life staff will be working on the campus.
UMass has hired Margolis Healy, a professional services company specializing in campus safety, security and regulatory compliance for higher education, to review security long term.
“UMass police officials in discussions with union officials have offered the opportunity to its police officers to work straight time shifts at the Mount Ida campus, but no officer has expressed interest to date,” he wrote.
Green denies that campus police were offered straight time patrol shifts, but in an email said it would be “next to impossible to even think it would be possible to send officers or an officer down there on ‘straight’ time. This action would leave the Amherst campus with below minimum staffing.
“(The union) recommended two officer patrols at the Mount Ida Campus and also advised management that we had officers in the department that would be willing to transfer down to Mount Ida on a permanent basis if and when they come up with or accept our proposal,” he said.
International Brotherhood of Police Officers Local 432B President Matthew Malo in the press release “We are deeply troubled by the flawed roll out of UMass-Amherst’s security plans for the Mount Ida property. The administration has given little to no thought to the protection of the UMass students, faculty and staff at the Mount Ida campus,” said . “UMPD is responsible for the welfare of the UMass community and the University’s Mount Ida security plan is lacking to non-existent, it endangers the public.”
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