UNC Asheville police OK'd to expand jurisdiction, 'take action' outside campus

ASHEVILLE — UNC Asheville’s police force will be expanding its jurisdiction beyond the campus perimeter, following a move approved by City Council May 14.

The agreement with Asheville Police Department will allow UNCA police — who are fully sworn police officers — to patrol and make arrests at properties adjacent to their campus that serve as student housing. However, any investigations that ensue will still be handled by APD, Chief Mike Lamb said in the meeting.

“UNC Asheville had made the request to us, but it’s actually helpful to the Asheville Police Department because it helps provide a little more presence, especially where you have student housing off campus,” Lamb said.

Lamb specifically mentioned an uptick in the fall of “dangerous incidents” overnight at Verge Apartments, a “living-learning” apartment complex for students, according to its website, in the Montford area north of the city.

In an earlier discussion during an Environment and Safety Committee meeting April 23, Lamb said the conversation about the agreement first started after a man was threatening student residents with a knife at the apartment complex.

“That prompted a lot of concern from the UNCA student body but also parents of those college students,” Lamb said.

The chief also noted that the highest volume of crime are vehicular break-ins occurring between midnight and 3 a.m., when APD’s patrol division is “very busy.”

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“Really all it does is protect our officers who want to go to an area like the Verge Apartments where we’ve had an uptick in crime to help the Asheville Police Department out in increasing patrols in that area, so that if our officers see something happen in front of them, they have the ability to act,” Daran Dodd, UNCA’s police chief, said in the council meeting.

In the Environment and Safety Committee meeting, Dodd mentioned how sometimes officers pass through areas that are not technically a part of campus to get to other campus properties. If one of UNCA’s 17 officers were to see a crime occur during the travel immediately off campus, they’d have no jurisdiction to take action, Dodd said.

The vote passed 5-1, with council member Kim Roney the only “no” vote. She said her main concern was the timing of the proposal, coming right after UNCA’s commencement, it’s hard to engage the most impacted people — the students and staff. Roney asked that council delay the vote until September when there can be more input from UNCA’s student government and Faculty Senate.

However, Dodd said the process was started several months ago, with UNCA’s Board of Trustees having already approved the move.

“Really it affects just our department and our officers and protecting them and protecting our students who are in properties … around the university. There was not an assessment on our part for student engagement with that,” Dodd said in response to Roney’s concerns.

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Under North Carolina law, any Board of Trustees of a UNC institution can enter into joint agreement with local municipalities to extend campus police officers’ jurisdiction.

Another concern raised by Nina Tovish, a public commentor and former candidate for Asheville City Council, was over the minimal documentation online regarding the agreement. She said what information that was made publicly available is “remarkably vague” on where UNCA officers will be allowed to go.

“The actual agreement itself has specific language and is very restrictive on the distance that we can go out, as well as notifying the Asheville Police Department when we do,” Dodd said.

Ryley Ober is the Public Safety Reporter for Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Email her at rober@gannett.com and follow her on Twitter @ryleyober

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: UNC Asheville police can now patrol off campus, expand jurisdiction