When it comes to preventing crime on college campuses, University police departments in Maryland have a very important tool in their arsenal -- the ability to bar individuals involved in criminal activity from property owned by the institution. Often this occurs as a result of identifying individuals who have committed crimes on the campus, whether they be property crimes or crimes against persons. These denials of access, which are typically issued immediately following an arrest, makes the person subject to immediate arrest if he or she returns to the campus without permission. This gives an extra level of protection against repeat offenders returning to the campus where the crime was committed.
From sharing information about arrests between university police departments, it became evident that some criminals who target one university campus, also target others. With this in mind, the UMD College Park, UMD Baltimore County, and Towson University police departments entered into an agreement to share denial of access data.
The UMD College Park PD Information Technology Unit, in cooperation with Capital Wireless Information Net (CAPWIN), is leading an effort to connect institutions of higher education all over the Maryland region in order to share a database of known individuals who were issued either a Denial of Access or a Trespassing charge for each respective campus. A database was created and managed by the University of Maryland College Park police department to which UMBC and Towson University securely upload data on individuals denied access to their university campuses. As a result of this, police officers from any law enforcement agency will have immediate access to information via CAPWIN Mobile pertaining to any current denials of access at any of the participating campuses.
The goal is to ultimately get all Universities within the state of Maryland on board with this project.