CUNY dangerously ‘vulnerable’ as security plummets, insiders say
The City University of New York’s security force is so understaffed that campuses are dangerously “vulnerable” amid surging crime in the Big Apple, insiders told The Post.
The university system’s public safety department has plummeted 40 percent to about 900 sworn officers and security assistants — down from some 1,500 before the COVID-19 pandemic, the sources said.
The count includes approximately 600 sworn, or peace, officers who patrol campuses — about 300 less than pre-pandemic levels. Another 300 — about half the roster before the pandemic — work as security assistants typically stationed at buildings.
“Most of the colleges are in dire straits,” one insider said. “We’re in a crisis with safety.”
The staffing shortage puts the system’s 25 campuses — which enrolled 243,000 students in the fall of 2021 — in a “vulnerable position,” another insider said.
“If something happens we don’t have enough people to respond. We just don’t,” said the source who works at one of CUNY’s 11 senior colleges.
The peace officers also respond to crimes on campus perimeters, such as an Aug. 7 melee on West 136th Street adjacent to the City College campus, during which a 14-year-old girl was accused of stabbing a 13-year-old in the chest. And on July 9, a 14-year-old was fatally stabbed at the 137th Street subway station that serves CCNY.
Some of the taxpayer-funded schools have had to hire contracted help to fill in the gaps, sources said.
Poor pay and guards leaving for other law enforcement opportunities were cited as reasons for the lack of staff. The salary for a peace officer tops out at $47,000 after seven years.
Most of CUNY’s peace officers are not allowed by their college presidents to carry guns. City College, Lehman College in the Bronx, Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn and the College of Staten Island are among a handful where officers are armed.
Other schools lock up the weapons in offices and officers need to dash to get them.
“God forbid there’s an active shooter, they have to run to a locked box to get it otherwise it’s only protecting the Xerox machines right now,” an insider said.
At Brooklyn College — where there was an unfounded active shooter threat in February — public safety department administrators have guns on them — but only while they sit in their offices, a spokesman said.
“As a safety precaution, the college does not share specific details of its protocols related to emergency situations,” said spokesman Richard Pietras.
The college called in officers from other campuses the day after the February threat was made to a professor, saying it beefed up its staff “out of an abundance of caution.”
Some blame Andre Brown, who took over as CUNY’s executive director of public safety in December 2020 — despite never having been a police officer and lacking the background to lead a large police department — for not doing enough to boost recruitment.
“He’s never worked patrol in any agency. He’s always been a desk jockey. He’s never been in our shoes,” one source said.
Brown, who was an assistant commissioner overseeing operations and police at the city’s Administration for Children’s Services, was hired over candidates with more law enforcement experience.
A search committee ranked him below three others — Dawn Smallwood, who held the No. 2 security post at CUNY; Geraldine Hart, the Suffolk County Police commissioner; and Louis Molina, a former NYPD detective who is now the city’s corrections commissioner, according to a source familiar with the hiring process.
But, the source said, Hector Batista, CUNY’s chief operating officer, pushed for Brown to be hired.
CUNY maintained that all its appointments follow state Civil Service Law and the university’s policies.
The university contended that security staffing was closely monitored to ensure that each campus is at safe levels.
“Public Safety and law enforcement agencies across the nation, including CUNY’s, have been experiencing staffing shortages since the start of the pandemic. We are focused on ongoing strategies to improve recruitment and retention,” a CUNY spokeswoman said.
