Chief's Message

The University of Richmond Police Department is a professional law enforcement agency in compliance with the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services standards and a nationally accredited agency thru the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies Inc. (CALEA) and the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators (IACLEA).

We are the primary law enforcement agency for our campus and operate twenty-four hours a day every day with a dedicated Public Safety Communications Center.

I am proud of the work performed by our Officers, Communications Officers, Security Officers and our civilian staff that make up the Police Department. I believe the success of our police department is based on shared values with our UR community. 

Commonly referred to as URPD, we share common values within Business Affairs and the University in general to include:  

Teamwork, Relationships, Stewardship, Ownership, Creativity, and Recognition and Well-Being.

Each Officer has discretion and I emphasize that our culture is that of community care taking and providing bias free policing with procedurally just behaviors. Bias free policing is basing decisions on sound objective standards such as probable cause.

Procedurally just behaviors include:

Treat people with dignity and respect
Allow individuals a voice during encounters
Being neutral and transparent with decision making
Convey trustworthy motives.

I want to share with you a few things about URPD that make us unique to our UR community. We are a collection of individuals with a passion for collaboration specific to the safety of our students, staff, faculty and community. Over half of our staff have received a bachelor’s degree and twenty percent have a master’s degree, along with 1 PHD candidate.

Twenty percent of our staff are Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT). Collectively we have 257 years of experience policing at the University of Richmond.

We investigate crimes against a person and harassment to include any electronic means.

We investigate property and cybercrimes, we maintain strong relationships with local, state, and federal resources if needed.

We provide fingerprinting services for licensing requirements such as education and law school.

We provide an array of prevention programs to include hostile intruder training and self-defense sessions. We can jump start your car when needed or aid if your vehicle breaks down.

We issue emergency alerts and timely warnings.

We work closely with our Bias Reporting and Response Team and make determinations relating to potential hate crime activity.

We collaborate closely with our Deans Offices and CAPS for the well-being of our students and support our RA’s if requested.

URPD is fortunate to maintain enhanced training for mental health and trauma based investigative techniques. We complete welfare checks in specific situations and retain confidentiality with what we do. We are trained to be a safety net during non-business hours.

We collaborate with Title IX, and operate with a “believe first” mentality, working in cooperation with any victim, support the use of an advocate and provide informative resources to allow for an individual to make the best decision for themselves.

URPD responds to medical calls across campus, it is normal to have an officer respond along with our student driven Emergency Medical Services Team.

https://police.richmond.edu/urems/index.html

URPD will continue to be distinctively UR and built for the changing needs within our community.

Dave McCoy
Chief of Police