Ellie Park, Multimedia Managing Editor
Yale Police and Yale Security are ramping up their presence on and off campus in response to “recent incidents” and “concerns” around the University, according to a Yale Public Safety email sent out on Sunday.
In the email, Yale Public Safety — the umbrella department for Yale Security and the Yale Police Department — detailed measures it will take to increase its reach and “visibility” around campus. A spokesperson for Yale Public Safety wrote in an email to the News that it determined the need for such changes based on incidents reported to the Yale community through Timely Warnings and Public Safety Advisories.
The YPD’s chief and assistant chief send “Timely Warnings” when crimes in the campus area that “represent a serious or ongoing threat to students, faculty, and staff” are reported, according to the latest published Yale Public Safety annual security report. Public Safety Advisories, meanwhile, are alerts “issued on a case-by-case basis” about incidents that are determined to be a concern to the Yale community, but do not meet the requirements to constitute a Timely Warning.
“Yale Public Safety is committed to maintaining the safety and security of our campus,” the Yale Public Safety spokesperson wrote. “Timely Warnings and Public Safety Advisories, such as those shared in recent weeks, help our community remain aware of incidents as they happen, and the Yale Police Department assigns officers and patrols based on that current information.”
Yale Security looking to hire, be seen
Yale Security — Yale Public Safety’s non-police force that manages the campus’s blue phones and completes walking patrols — has increased its officers’ presence on campus and assigned more officers to patrol cars in “high-visibility areas,” according to the Yale Public Safety spokesperson.
Yale Security officers stationed in campus buildings have been tasked with monitoring the “exterior” of the buildings to deter crime by increasing awareness of their presence, the spokesperson wrote. The department has also assigned security foot patrol officers on Wall Street, and drive-by patrols around Lynwood Place.
Yale Security is aiming to hire six new officers by November and three security managers by the end of the year, the spokesperson noted.
Yale Police expands downtown
The YPD is assigning “approximately two to six” officers to daily walking beats in the downtown area, according to the Yale Public Safety spokesperson. The times and locations of these new patrol routes are determined by crime data that the YPD has collected.
In response to inquiries about the change in the YPD’s allocation of resources, the spokesperson wrote that the YPD considers its staffing levels in determining whether officers are assigned to patrol cars or walking beats.
Additional patrol units are being deployed to “increase visibility” downtown and in the Prospect Street area, the spokesperson wrote.
Although the YPD’s regular jurisdiction does not extend past the boundaries of the campus, the department is responsible for keeping track of crime in an extended region of the city, known as its “Clery geography” in reference to the Clery Act — the federal law requiring universities to monitor and report crime in their vicinities. Such areas include campus buildings, on-campus student housing, public property within campus bounds, public property “immediately adjacent to and accessible from on-campus locations” and non-campus property either frequently used by students or controlled by a recognized student organization.
The YPD’s Clery reporting area extends from Hill’s Columbus Avenue by the medical campus to Highland Street by the Ivy Manor Apartments in East Rock, and from Howe Street to College Street, extending to Whitney Avenue but excluding the New Haven Green.
Lieutenant Brendan Borer, the downtown district manager for the New Haven Police Department, confirmed that the YPD has been offering “supplemental beats” in his district, though he does not know their daily assignments.
The YPD’s detectives are also collaborating with the New Haven Police Department to monitor surveillance cameras, according to the Yale Public Safety email, with the aim of “swiftly identifying suspects involved in incidents” and filing arrest warrants.
Since Aug. 26, the YPD has issued eight Timely Warnings, four Public Safety Advisories — including the Sunday email detailing changes to department activities — and one notification of a robbery, according to the department’s Clery-mandated website archive of alerts.
Of the Timely Warnings, five have reported incidents in downtown New Haven, two occurred adjacent to the Grove Street Cemetery — one on Lake Place and one by Benjamin Franklin College — and by Ingalls Rink.
The most recent Clery security report monitors crimes reported from January to December 2023. Released on Sept. 30, it shows that the number of reported robberies and aggravated assaults have both doubled since 2022.
Yale Public Safety’s annual report for 2024 will be released in the fall of 2025.