Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf signed a bill on Oct. 1 that will expand the jurisdiction of state universities and increase efforts in protecting the health and safety of college students and faculty.
Senate Bill 678, sponsored by Sen. Lloyd Smucker, allows campus law enforcement to file charges against those who are committing crimes on roads, bicycle trails and sidewalks that run through state university property.
The bill overrides a 2014 Supreme Court decision that prohibited campus police from arresting or filing charges against anyone on a road going straight through, or surrounding, a state university. The ruling declared that roads running through university campuses were not technically the property of the university, and should not be included under campus police jurisdiction.
The 14 state-owned universities potentially affected by the jurisdiction are Millersville, Bloomsburg, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock, Lock Haven, West Chester, Kutztown, California, Indiana, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Cheyney and Mansfield.
The new law will not affect SU students or university police because there are no roads that run directly through the university’s property, said Peter Gigliotti, executive director for university communications and marketing.
SU Chief of Police Cytha Grissom said the SU Police Department’s jurisdiction does not extend to the roads near campus, such as Fogelsanger Road or Route 696. Therefore, the change in law will not affect the way in which campus law enforcement patrols the SU campus.
Act 41 2015 (formerly Senate Bill 678) will be put into effect at the end of November.
According to ABC27 News, more than a dozen DUI convictions at Millersville University had to be thrown out as a result of the Supreme Court ruling, as well as one count of driving under the influence at Slippery Rock University.
Smucker, in a statement, said that the recent shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon was a wake up call that “even college campuses are not immune to violent crime.”
The new law puts the state universities on the same page as larger Pennsylvania schools such as Penn State and Temple universities.
Through a statement to ABC27, Millersville University Chief of Police Pete Anders said that the move to clarify campus police officers’ jurisdiction was a step in the right direction.
“I felt that it made a lot of common sense,” Anders said. “It’s a really big decision for the community and also for the university.
“It is a force multiplier, there are more eyes on the roadways as it comes through here that have the ability to stop somebody who’s driving recklessly.”
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