Amid recent shootings, Temple hires former Philly Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey to conduct campus safety audit

Continuing its pledge to improve safety in the wake of shootings near campus, Temple University announced Thursday morning it was forming a task force and hiring former Philly Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey to conduct an audit of campus safety services.

The move comes after student Samuel Collington was shot to death last semester in a near-campus robbery and carjacking, putting the North Philadelphia university on edge and leaving students and staff fearful.

“We are committed to enhancing safety around campus and Commissioner Ramsey’s expertise will be key to ensuring that we are on the right path.” university President Jason Wingard said in a message to the campus.

» READ MORE: Temples campus is on edge after a student was shot to death: ‘Students are afraid’

Ramsey served as Philadelphia’s police commissioner from 2008 to 2016 during which the city’s homicide rate plummeted. He also had cochaired former President Barack Obama’s task force on policing and led police forces in both Chicago and Washington, D.C.

He is a partner in 21CP Solutions, a firm that helps cities and communities with public safety. The firm also conducted safety audits at Harvard and Yale and closer to home, Drexel University. The report released by Drexel cited problems found in towns and on campuses nationally, Drexel President John A. Fry said at the time. Fry cited “disproportionate stops and questioning of community members of color, particularly Black men; armed officers being dispatched to address noncriminal and/or nonviolent situations, potentially escalating them; and a lack of good data with which to track and improve outcomes.” It also included positive accounts, saying police there were building community and protecting the campus.

Charles Leone, Temple police chief, said the audit likely will take about six months and the details are still being worked out. It will include a look at safety policies and procedures to make sure the university is using all the best practices, he said.

“It’s a good chance for us to bring somebody in with a fresh set of eyes who knows a lot,” Leone said.

The city’s gun violence epidemic hit painfully close to the campus last November. On Nov. 16, Ahmir Jones, 18, who was not a Temple student, was shot and killed three blocks from campus. Then on Nov. 28, Collington was killed just after returning to his off-campus residence after Thanksgiving break.

Wingard at that time promised over the next days and weeks to increase security, including working with the city Police Department to establish more patrols in nearby student residential areas and aiming to boost the 115-officer campus police force by 50%. The university, he said at that time, also intended to upgrade lighting, cameras, and emergency phones and increase the availability of shuttle service and its walking escort program.

» READ MORE: Temple will increase its police force following recent shootings near campus, but some worry about overpolicing

Thursday’s announcement, he said, continues those efforts. Four new police officers were added to patrol, six have been hired as officers or trainees, and a dozen more are in the interview process, the university said.

“With an additional 70 applicants, Temple hopes to have a sizable number for its next police academy,” the university said.

Will J. Jordan, president of Temple’s faculty union, said he supports the audit by Ramsey, a nationally known police executive who frequently gives public commentary.

“I don’t see a downside,” he said.

But Bradley Smutek, president of student government, said student leaders were not consulted in advance of the announcement and some students are concerned that Ramsey has defended stop-and-frisk policies.

Ramsey served as police commissioner under then-Mayor Michael Nutter, an advocate of stop-and-frisk policing. In his second year in office, 2009, pedestrian stops hit a peak of 253,000. However, his administration later signed an agreement with the American Civil Liberties Union to curb the stops — and they have plummeted. Police stopped about 14,000 pedestrians last year.

“We were promised we would be included more in these conversations.” Smutek said. “We have been disappointed that this hasn’t been the case thus far.”

He also said there should have been a mention of the safety survey student government recently sent out to 32,000 students, asking for their perceptions of services offered and responses to questions such as where on campus they feel safest.

“We were very surprised and disappointed to see that there wasn’t [a mention],” he said.

The survey closes on Feb. 6 and it will take about two weeks to get results, Smutek said. Student government plans to make recommendations based on the data, he said.

Temple said it also will form a task force on violence-reduction strategies, “which will be used to keep key constituents, including parents and North Philadelphia residents, engaged in enhancing safety,” the university said.

“The answers to solving this crisis can be found only by harnessing the collective expertise of the entire Temple community,” Wingard said. “This is all hands on deck ...”

» READ MORE: ‘Where is the outrage ... from everyone?’ The story behind this Temple trauma surgeon’s tweet.

The university also said it was launching a new personal safety mobile app, called RAVE Temple Guardian, which students can use to connect directly with campus police to request virtual and physical escorts and report problems.

Temple’s medical school also plans to develop a center within the school for violence prevention intervention. Amy Goldberg, dean of the medical school and a trauma surgeon, after a series of shootings including two deaths in the early hours of New Year’s Day, tweeted: “Last night was an abomination in our city. Our community is dying. Where is the outrage ... from everyone?”

Staff writers Chris Palmer and Craig R. McCoy contributed to this article.