Dear UMB Community,

We are pleased to share with you a new and innovative public safety collaboration between the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) and the University of Baltimore (UBalt). Just a few miles apart, our two institutions have much in common: compact, urban campuses serving dedicated student bodies with a focus on professional careers, public service, advocacy, and more. Our campuses have grown alongside some of the city’s most celebrated neighborhoods — historic, lively, and each a blend of longtime residents and local business. Our connections to the city represent a significant part of our individual missions.

UMB and UBalt also share a strong commitment to public safety. We each have our own police department working in cooperation with the Baltimore City Police Department. Like every institution in the University System of Maryland, we manage campus safety via trained professionals who routinely interact with our communities. This system has worked to the great benefit of our institutions. The crime rate is low on both campuses, and our students, faculty, staff, and visitors are reassured by the presence of uniformed officers who reflect our missions and cultures.

It is these commonalities that have inspired us to work together. With campus crime prevention and community-focused law enforcement as our starting point, we intend to collaborate on the delivery of police services. UMB and UBalt have entered into a nonbinding arrangement that calls for UMB to provide police services to the UBalt campus. UBalt will retain the responsibility for everyday campus security performed by unarmed, civilian security staff. This affiliation, which will continue to provide the high level of safety that both institutions experience today, is anticipated to be fully in effect in the first quarter of 2022. All UBalt sworn officers will be encouraged to apply for similar positions with the UMB Police Department, and those who join UMB will be assigned to the UBalt campus.

For both institutions, the usual police presence, with full-time patrols and an immediate response to community issues and observations, will not change. In addition, UBalt’s acting police captain, Jason Kunz, MA, will join the UMB police department and serve in the role of liaison for UBalt. He, along with UMB Police Chief Thomas Leone, MSL, will provide invaluable institutional knowledge and awareness to ensure the success of this initiative. To be clear: We are aligned in our commitment to keep our institutions and communities safe.

Over the next several months, we will work through the details of this new arrangement. In the meantime, members of both communities should continue to contact their university police as they always have. We are confident that in the new year we will move forward with the effective, well-integrated police department that all of us deserve.

Sincerely,

Bruce E. Jarrell, MD, FACS                          Kurt L. Schmoke, JD                            

President                                                      President

University of Maryland, Baltimore                    University of Baltimore