The Marquette University Police Department was ranked No. 4 in the National Campus Safety Summit Department of the Year Award list.
The National Campus Safety Summit Department of the Year Award recognizes outstanding accomplishment in student and campus safety by U.S. college or university administrative departments. The full rankings can be viewed online.
In his nomination, Marquette President Michael R. Lovell wrote,
Crime statistics are just one aspect of the positive impact the department has made in our community. MUPD is committed to the mission of our Catholic and Jesuit university, which calls all of us to care for one another. MUPD expresses that care for others through a host of department-wide community outreach efforts plus many acts of kindness and compassion by individual officers. Department-wide initiatives include “Coffee with a Cop,” face-to-face conversations between students and officers done in partnership with our student government; the Homeless Outreach Team, which keeps stocks of clothes and other supplies for those who may be in need; and Nattie, a four-legged addition to the department whose Instagram page already has more than 2,000 followers.
One of the individual acts of kindness, which I was proud to highlight in my annual address to campus earlier this year, came from officer Josiah Williams. He gave willingly when he found a family in need. Through his conversation with a woman and three children, he discovered that they were planning to sleep in their car for three days while they waited for space to open up in public housing. Instead, he reached into his own pocket and collected funds from fellow officers to help them stay in a hotel room. Another officer, Danny Hernandez, was called to the scene when a woman was caught shoplifting diapers. Instead of issuing a citation, he drove the woman to a shelter, where they gave her a pack of diapers and informed her of other available resources.
Those are just two examples of the men and women who keep our campus safe every day. Although they would not seek recognition for this themselves, I am honored to write this nomination on behalf of the great work they do every day for Marquette University.