About
The University of Pennsylvania Police Department (UPPD), with 116 members, is the largest private police department in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and maintains the second largest number of full-time sworn police officers amongst all private Universities across the United States, and the third largest number of sworn police officers for all Universities nationwide, both public and private.
All personnel of the UPPD are full-time sworn municipal police officers certified through the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Municipal Police Officers Training and Education Commission, and retain general law enforcement authority and order maintenance for the area in which the University of Pennsylvania is situated.
The primary responsibilities of the UPPD are crime prevention, abatement and investigation within the Penn patrol zone jurisdiction, which extends from 30th Street to 43rd Street (east to west) and Market Street to Baltimore Avenue (north to south).
Accreditation
The UPPD is a fully-accredited police department, and has been since March 2001, through the Commission on the Accreditation of Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA)*, which administers a rigorous accreditation process whereby law enforcement agencies must adhere to over 440 standards, codes and state-of-the-art practices. The UPPD remains the first and only Pennsylvania university police department to receive this prestigious recognition, and one of approximately 40 in the nation.
*CALEA: The credentialing authority created through the joint efforts of the following four law enforcement major executive associations: International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP); National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE); National Sheriffs' Association (NSA); and the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF). The purpose of CALEA’s Accreditation Programs is to improve the delivery of public safety services, primarily by: maintaining a body of standards, developed by public safety practitioners, covering a wide range of up-to-date public safety initiatives; establishing and administering an accreditation process; and recognizing professional excellence.
