Campus Safety

The Trinity University Police Department provides 24-hour police and security coverage for the University community 365 days a year. The department is responsible for services in the areas of parking, traffic control, crime prevention, investigations, and law enforcement.

Billing itself as “proactive, progressive, and professional,” Trinity’s force of peace officers has served as a stabilizing hand on campus, helping protect and guide a campus community that has historically presented its own unique challenges.

The concept of an on-campus police force first gained traction back in the 1950s, when Trinity’s growing campus necessitated increased security measures. With incidents of theft and physical assault reported on campuses throughout the country, Trinity began by employing a single night watchman to patrol the area around the women's dormitories. By the end of the decade, the services of six part-time off-duty police officers supervised by Lt. William "Smoky" Stover of the San Antonio Police Department supplied campus protection. Their attention centered on writing traffic tickets and attempting to reduce the number of break-ins and car thefts in campus parking lots.

Trinity would also employ the services of the Smith Detective Agency in 1965 for  twenty-four-hour campus coverage. The University also installed new campus lighting to make it safer to walk at night and added an emergency telephone number to put students in immediate contact with security officers.

This new emphasis on safety also came with some unpopular decisions: new rules closed all buildings except the library at 10 p.m. on weekdays and Saturday and all day on Sunday. During these times, no entrance was allowed without obtaining special access from university authorities. Some users lamented the loss of freedom, but still others expressed appreciation for the new campus safety measures.

Security officers in the 1960s reported that their toughest assignments were to monitor several panty raids, during which a large number of male students gathered at the women's dormitories. One such rally made headlines across the city on May 18, 1966. After women tossed some garments from the balconies, the crowd quickly dispersed. The San Antonio Evening News ran a headline reporting how Trinity’s police were able to “cool off midnight raiders.”

In 1979, President Ronald Calgaard severed relationships with the Smith Agency and established a university security and safety office with its own director and certified peace officers. This move gave the University more control over the quality of its security force and encouraged greater continuity of personnel. By the end of the decade, Trinity had 30 employees on its security and safety staff who provided service 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with a budget approaching $900,000 annually.

At times, however, Trinity students showered University officials with more pranks than they could comfortably handle. On several occasions, security personnel were forced to evacuate buildings because of bomb threats called in to the University switchboard. Although campus rumors linked the telephone calls to students facing difficult class examinations, no one was ever apprehended.

When campus security officers attempted to crack down on chronic parking offenders in 1973 by placing a locking device called a "Rhino" or "Boot" on the front wheel of their automobiles, Trinity students rose to the occasion. One evening officers affixed the Rhino to a car that belonged to a student who had amassed a large number of tickets. When they returned the next morning, the car had disappeared and the Rhino was secured around a large branch of a nearby oak tree. A handwritten sign attached to the Rhino read: "Don't F*ck With Houdini."

During the same year, individuals identified as "Bonnie and Clyde" broke into the security office and confiscated all existing parking and traffic tickets. The duo slipped a note under the door of the Trinitonian office that read, "Students be warned. The Traffic and Security Office no longer has copies of tickets written past years to the present. You have been liberated!"

Reporting the episode, Trinitonian news editor Brett Hall commented, "Whatever results from Trinity's Watergate ... the break-in has made Trinity a little more livable.

In the present day, relations between students and police have become immensely more productive and collaborative. Under current Police Chief Paul Chapa, the department has been recognized at both the national and international levels as an innovative, modern force for campus safety. Some of their newest initiatives to meet faculty, staff, and students on campus include the beloved Trinity-favorite “CopCorn,” as well as “Coffee with a Cop.”

Chapa, recognized by TACUPA as the 2017 Bill G. Daniels Award recipient for outstanding administrator, continues to emphasize boosting campus visibility, holding leadership training for officers, and maintaining strong departmental credentials.

To date, TUPD has been honored by organizations ranging from International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators to the Texas Police Chiefs Association Law Enforcement Recognition Program and the Texas Association of College and University Police Administrators, among others.