Spring Break
DU hires director of police operations
Stephanie Takach
Issue date: 10/24/08 Section: News
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Spangler served as a Police Lieutenant in the 39th Police District and Narcotics Strike Force and worked as the commanding officer of the Philadelphia Police Department's Crime Scene Unit in gaining national recognition through the accreditation process.
At Drexel, Spangler is looking to work with the University's faculty, staff and students.
"My biggest thing, my one mission is to work with the students, with the faculty and make this a safe and secure environment for learning," Spangler said. "I want to have liaisons so the cops can work with the students and faculty to address problems and address them in a timely manner."
Spangler said he wants the police force to act positively and to become involved with the community.
"It's not just Drexel, it's the surrounding area, all of these issues are holistic to the whole area," he said.
His day-to-day activities include responsibility for daily operations, dealing with crime patterns and deployment, and meeting with student government and faculty to address their concerns.
Spangler also said it's not just dealing with crime prevention.
"I think it's important to remember that police activities will not just be all crime related," Spangler said.
Other responsibilities will include traffic enforcement, pedestrian safety, looking at residential security, and creating programs to help educate and make people more aware of security on campus.
Some of the first challenges in implementing the new police force included getting official recognition by the state as a criminal justice agency, according to Domenic Ceccanecchio, senior associate vice president of Public Safety. Drexel received that recognition after working with the attorney general's office in July.
"All of our police officers will be Act 120 certified police officers which means they graduate from one of the [police] academies," Ceccanecchio said.
"Whenever we send out police officers to training every year, they maintain that certification."
Drexel Public Safety is concerned with making sure the police officers hired will be diverse and as closely as possible mirror our community. The makeup of the police officers will be a combination of ex-municipal police officers, other university police officers, retired police officers and some graduates from Act 120 schools, according to Ceccanecchio.
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