Meet Community Safety – our new look Campus Security
Keep an eye out for some familiar faces in new uniforms on campus.
Campus Security have re-launched as the Community Safety team. The team are working with a renewed focus on building positive relationships with students, staff and visitors by engaging with them directly, and working to make sure our community is safe and well while we’re together on campus.
The phone number for the team has not changed and, as always, Community Safety can be reached 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. You can call them on 024 7652 2083.
The team has also published revamped webpages. You can read about the department’s mission, vision, objectives and values, learn about the team’s code of conduct, and offer feedback on interactions you have with the team.
New light-blue uniforms will signify the approachable nature of the Community Safety team, and team members will be keeping regular routes around campus on foot or bicycle as much as possible so that you can get to know them. For students, there will be crime prevention and personal safety advice roadshows, conversations at society events, and other COVID-safe ways of engagement.
Community Safety is led by Mark Kennell, Head of Community Safety and Security. Mark said:
“Our roles and responsibilities are much broader than typical ‘security-related’ ones and so our new name, uniform and focus addresses this. By becoming the Community Safety department, I truly believe it better reflects what we are about and what we are here to do. It broadens our scope and also, hopefully, better describes to others what our primary focus is: people.”
The team sits within the Wellbeing and Safeguarding Group, and Ben Pithouse, in his role as Director of Operations and Community Wellbeing, provides strategic direction and oversight. Ben said:
“The move to “Community Safety” follows review of the team’s purpose and image, whilst also responding to changing expectations and feedback from our community. It better describes what the team does, and, coupled with the new look uniform, aims to reduce barriers and improve access to support by anyone who might need it. As students and staff return to campus, the Community Safety team will be available to make sure that peoples’ experience of Warwick is a positive one and to ensure that our campus remains a safe place to study, live, work and socialise.”
Shingai Dƶumbira, in her position as President of Warwick Students Unions, said:
“The Students’ Union welcomes this change, and sees it as a move in the right direction. We hope that this will be the start of a more supportive relationship with the student body, and that the Community Safety team will address concerns that our students have raised.”