VCU news

By Michael Kelly

To the extent that Virginia Commonwealth University sometimes functions as a city within a city, the VCU Police Department functions as the municipal police force of that small city. With jurisdiction over 143 acres of campus and additional jurisdiction in neighborhoods surrounding two urban campuses, the department’s 92 officers face a limitless range of safety and law enforcement challenges.

Under John Venuti, who is chief of police and assistant vice president for public safety at VCU, the department has committed to constant improvement of its equipment and capabilities. The department is now poised to take another significant step forward thanks to a state grant.

On Wednesday, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli announced that the VCU Police Department has been awarded $2.08 million to develop a regional law enforcement training facility geared toward campus law enforcement agencies. As Virginia’s largest campus law enforcement agency, VCU Police is taking the lead on the regional facility, which will include instructional classrooms and facilities designed to simulate environments that VCU Police officers or other campus law enforcement officers might encounter.

“Obviously in the field of campus law enforcement we have unique and special challenges we deal with on a daily basis,” Venuti said. “Some of those issues include mental health issues as well as the expectation of parents to keep their children safe each and every day. So we’re going to use these funds to create a training facility to help us accomplish all of those very, very difficult goals.”

The facility will enable VCU Police to engage in a more robust and diverse set of training activities, including expanded Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) for handling situations involving people with mental health challenges, Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) for active shooter situations, training the department’s Crowd Management Team (CMT) and training exercises involving patrol vehicles and bicycles.

“It will be a combination of a lot of different venues for training,” Venuti said. “The facility will include a firearms facility as well as classroom space for dealing with some of the other issues like mental health and active shooter situations. We are currently doing a lot of training but with the ability to have our own facility to accommodate us, as well as other agencies, it will make scheduling those trainings and completing those trainings a lot easier.”

An outdoor firing range will allow sworn officers to complete their mandatory twice-annual weapons qualification ensuring they are skilled enough to use firearms safely and effectively. The department is currently dependent on availability of range facilities owned by other departments, sometimes several counties away from campus.

“All agencies want to be ready when bad things happen and you can’t do it without training and you can’t do it without training facilities,” Venuti said. “We have to be prepared to deal with things you hope you’ll never have to deal with.”

While a location for the new regional facility is still being finalized, VCU Police hopes to complete the facility in the coming year.

VCU Police was awarded its grant as part of a competitive process funded by a multimillion dollar settlement won by Virginia’s Attorney General Office against a pharmaceutical company that was engaged in Medicaid fraud.  The grant was the most awarded to any campus law enforcement agency and was behind only the Virginia State Police and the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services for all recipients.

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