The following interview was conducted in person on October 9, 2025. Chief Griffin spoke with me about her decision to head Temple’s Public Safety department, the changes she’s implemented, including the use of surveillance technologies, her own academic background in sociology, and how Temple Public Safety might respond to the deployment of any federal forces to Philadelphia. The interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. — Stan Mir, Editor

_____________________________________________________________________

The Faculty Herald: Before starting in your current capacities at Temple, you had served in the Delaware State Police for 19 years. In 2022, you were appointed the Chief of Temple Police and Vice President of Public Safety, which was a newly created position that year. That was a particularly violent era around campus. For context, I’ll mention two tragic events: Samuel Collington, a Temple undergraduate, was killed during a carjacking on the edge of campus in November 2021. Just over a year later, Sergeant Christopher Fitzgerald, a Temple officer, was killed on duty. What have you and your team done since then to increase safety on and around campus? 

Dr. Jennifer Griffin: When I looked at the opportunity here at Temple, I connected with its mission and my own love for the students. Even though the university community had experienced a lot of challenges around that time, I wasn’t deterred by them. I felt compelled to support positive, uplifting, and tangible changes.

During the hiring process, I spent time walking around on campus and the surrounding area to get a better sense of the place. I had, of course, spent time in Philly, but didn’t work in Philly. I fell in love with our kids and met some of our public safety officers who were out on patrol. They didn’t know who I was, so a few of them thought I was a mom just asking questions. Even with the challenges, when I came in, I came into it completely eyes wide open. That’s important when you come into a challenging situation. 

The creation of the VP for Public Safety position was also exciting, and it would be the first of its kind to sit on the President’s cabinet here at Temple. That speaks to Temple’s seriousness about the position and in confronting the public safety issues like the ones you’ve mentioned. This was happening under the direction of Ken Kaiser, who has since retired. I saw a real opportunity to take public safety in a new direction. The people I met were so amazing. I was like, this will be challenging, but also very rewarding to be able to build something.

In my first 90 days, I wanted to listen and learn, to really immerse myself. I wanted to identify where we are not doing well and recognize areas of strength. I did a whole SWOT analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. I started to plan from there. 

The most important thing was foundational. We needed to reorganize the whole structure of public safety. We have great people working here, from admin to police officers, detectives, dispatchers, and security. But there was a lack of background structure to build it up.  We were operating on the frontlines but didn’t have a lot of the support structures that other municipal or state agencies have to operate at the highest capacity and levels. The first goal was to build around the great people within public safety.

After former Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey’s audit of the university’s public safety policies, I developed a five-pillar plan focusing on personnel, training and professional development, equipment and technology, strategy and collaboration, and communication.

The most important thing was building the foundation and then supporting the people who were already here. It’s not just about throwing more police or security officers at an issue. We needed to look at technology. We needed to look at our training. We need to hire the best people and train them well. We need oversight of all of the different areas that we control. And the same with Allied, our contracted security. How do they build up and support what we’re doing? 

We’re using surveillance cameras with artificial intelligence, license plate readers, and gun detection abilities. We have almost 1,500 cameras, only some of them with gun detection. But we didn’t have a lifecycle management process before. Instead of trying to update 1,400 plus cameras every couple of years, which is a huge expense, we update 20%. Many of our upgrades have been funded by grants, rather than tuition dollars. Congressman Brendan Boyle has helped us with some of those grants. 

And then with our police officers, as readers are probably aware, it’s a challenging time to hire for “caring jobs” such as teachers, nurses, and police officers. There’s been a decrease in applicants, and more people are leaving the field than are entering. It’s a struggle for us and all police agencies locally, regionally and nationwide.So we’ve been working  to retain officers as well as how best to train them. 

Another piece of this is our Director of Communications, Matt Petrillo. He helps us get our message out.. If people don’t know about it, they don’t feel it. Matt has helped to improve how we communicate with the community. We want to meet people where they are. We’re using all the different social media platforms. We’re using our students who have very strong opinions, which we love. We started a student safety advisory committee. We meet with those students every month. They’ve been really good about giving us feedback. Those conversations led to the development of our color-coded TUAlert email notifications, which seems to be well-received.  We know, for example, our faculty and staff are probably better at reading the email. Our students are better at social media. So we’re trying to engage in all the ways we can, including hosting outreach events. We’ve already done over 50 this semester.

The Faculty Herald: I’d like to follow up on the department’s use of AI. When did it start, and how effective has it been so far? Have there been instances when it has successfully detected someone illegally carrying a gun on campus? Has the software helped to reduce crime or decrease the amount of any crime-related investigations?

Dr. Griffin: I think progressive police agencies need to stay up to date with their use of technologies. We started to use artificial intelligence about a year ago. We had our first success with the license plate reader. Within two weeks, we had an arrest of an individual who had stolen a car. It was someone’s work vehicle, which had all of his tools inside. We made a quick apprehension. We’ve had numerous incidents since then where people, whose plates had been flagged by the Philadelphia Police Department, have driven through campus. We shared this information with PPD, which helped them apprehend suspects involved violent crimes.

With gun detection, I think we’ve had three dozen false positives with kids playing with water guns. These alerts are important for us too, because sometimes a fake gun looks like a real gun. We send a police officer to engage those people just to be sure. The alerts we’ve received with real guns have been on duty police officers with their guns in their holsters. We think it’s been effective so far. It’s another layer that we’re using to make sure that we’re aware of what’s going on in our surroundings. FBI data tells us that in an active shooter or a mass casualty event, somebody presents a weapon minutes before they actually pull the trigger. If law enforcement is alerted to that sooner, that gives us more time to get there before the person potentially engages by pulling the trigger. This software is not on all of the cameras. We’ve designated certain cameras where we have high volume pedestrian traffic. We continue to evaluate our use of technology on an ongoing basis.We’re constantly evaluating the effectiveness.

The Faculty Herald: Has there been any change in the relationship between Temple Police and Philadelphia Police during your time here? 

Dr. Griffin: I think there’s always been a very good working relationship. We’re talking to the PPD’s command, whether it be me to the commissioner, a deputy commissioner, or from my deputy chiefs to their inspectors or their captains, on a daily basis. We have very good coordination and collaboration. I think we both see each other as a shared resource. 

Nobody has too many police officers anywhere in this country. So we are leveraging each other’s resources, our police officers, and our technology. We share all of our camera feeds with them. So if we have a crime that happens and we have footage of it, we’re immediately sharing it with them. We also donated cameras to them for  areas where they didn’t have cameras within the patrol zone. We share radio communications, not on the same frequency, but we have their radios, and they carry our radios when they’re on campus. So I would say very good coordination, our investigations unit works with their investigators on a daily basis. 

If there were something that involved detective work, then Temple police would engage with that first, if it were on campus. We have an agreement with PPD on what we would handle. Obviously, sexual assaults, shootings, or homicides go to PPD because they have large specialized units. But our investigators are masterful camera users and have access to everything on campus. And because they know the population here. The investigators work hand in hand on cases, and then they decide who will take responsibility for working the investigation. 

The Faculty Herald: What do you think are the greatest risks for people on campus, and what’s different about daytime compared to nighttime? 

Dr. Griffin: The biggest crime we deal with on a daily basis, that you can see in the crime log, is theft. We try to mitigate the issues as much as we can. We provide free U-locks for bikes and scooters to  our Temple community. Bring your Temple ID and your bike or scooter to our building and we will give you a really nice U-lock. We also teach you how to put it on so that it doesn’t get taken. 

As the day progresses, we have issues with juveniles in large groups that are not accompanied by adults. It’s an ongoing struggle throughout the city, not just here at Temple. There are meetups arranged via social media, saying, for example, we’re going to meet at Broad and Cecil B. Moore. Those become problematic when they’re large volume. 

And then overnight, mitigation is important. We tell students to walk with a buddy and/or to use the TUSafe app for a walking escort. We’re one of the top five largest cities in the country. We have crime like all other major cities. Educating students who are coming into the space, especially those who didn’t grow up in a city environment, how to be defensive and more aware of their surroundings you know. Sometimes this means we need to show students how to use public transportation, that you should take your headphones off and keep your phone in your pocket. We use our “Run, Hide, Fight” video as a platform to discuss how to be aware of your surroundings. It’s been positively received by our students, faculty, and staff. It can be a scary topic for people, so it’s important for people to learn some of the strategies. Danger can present itself any time you’re in public spaces. You can use these strategies anywhere. 

The Faculty Herald: Many of our readers will also be interested to know about your academic training. While you were working as an officer in the Delaware State Police, you completed a PhD in Sociology, focusing on gender and deviance. Could you talk about how your expertise in those areas applies to your daily work here at Temple? 

Dr. Griffin: First, I’ll say, I love the educational environment. I’m a lifelong learner, and teach as adjunct faculty at times. The program I was in at the University of Delaware, as an R1 university, was research-oriented. In my dissertation research, I focused on how to use data to make decisions and on how to reassess as you go along. It makes me a more informed leader. It also helps me in this environment because our professors and instructors value education. It gives me some credibility. The uniform and being a police officer for 26 years hopefully gives me some credibility, too. But I think having a PhD in this environment gives me additional credibility with my peers in an academic setting. 

My academic training, with its focus on evidence-based practices, helps me see and explain why our problems can’t be solved just by adding more police or adding more security officers. It’s really more about using sound strategies and knowing when to reassess and/or reevaluate. A lot of agencies will stick their head down and never look for alternative strategies. I’m open to having people come in and give advice. Former PPD Commissioner Ramsey, for example, conducted the 21CP audit of our department so that we could all learn where we need to improve. Ramsey has become a real mentor and friend to me. We’ve accomplished over 95% of the goals, and we’re making progress with the others. 

The Faculty Herald: To what extent do your 20-plus years with the Delaware State Police give you an advantage? 

Dr. Griffin: I think the benefit of being an outsider is that I bring a fresh viewpoint. We’ve made so many changes internally. The equipment the police officers carry, for example, has been completely updated. We have a highly valuable training simulator with 900 different scenarios for officers to learn from. We can improve our officers’ abilities to de-escalate situations with this equipment. We have changed all the technology, the software, our report management system, and completely changed our tactical professional development for the police officers, our dispatchers, and our security officers. We’ve changed almost everything. 

The Faculty Herald: Is the training simulator one of the new technologies since your arrival? 

Dr. Griffin: Yes, we use it for monthly training. It’s an extension of  our roll call training. We also now have an online virtual learning management system that includes modules with various lessons. We’re working towards triple accreditation. To do that, we have to go through each one of our policies, individually creating those we didn’t have before. 

The Faculty Herald: Could you describe some of the online learning that officers are doing? What are some of the topics covered? 

Dr. Griffin: We have modules on the problems of biased policing, how to respond to resistance, mental health, as well as how to deal with people in crisis. We have a significant number of students at Temple who come to us with complex challenges. There are also those in the community who are unhoused, maybe they have mental health issues, and/or alcohol/drug dependency. The officers are constantly learning how to deal with these different challenges. 

One of the great things about our learning management system is that we can build it to our needs. Officers take a class or watch a video, and then there’s always a quiz at the end to make sure they understand it and develop a process. Each month, there’s a separate topic, and depending on the topic, there might be a hands-on part. For example, the first-aid class includes a hands-on section for tourniquets. For mental health crises, we have some hands-on training for that. This is all in addition to the state-mandated training we do every year. We exceed the basic state-level requirements.

The Faculty Herald: I’d like to shift our focus to some questions about the political climate on college campuses these days. Many of our readers will be interested to hear how you and your officers are navigating these challenges, particularly since the Charlie Kirk shooting at Utah Valley University in September, or hate-filled demonstrations, like the one at Temple on September 29 at the beginning of National Coming Out Week, where the main goal was to challenge ideals like gender equity. Temple police, for that event, were called to manage the scene and de-escalate the tension. In what ways has your policing philosophy changed as a result of incidents like these?

Dr. Griffin: As a police officer, things are always changing. It’s important to remain flexible. I also try to remind myself that I come to work every day with love and understanding. I try to never take a position. It’s not my job to make a judgment, especially on some of these geopolitical issues in which I have no background. Some of these groups have been fighting for hundreds or thousands of years. For me, it’s important to realize that for anyone protesting, this is their cause. It’s what’s important to them. The most important thing to me is to create a safe space for people to demonstrate within the guidelines and the rules of the university, while also being mindful of the other population on campus that has no interest in this event. How do I make sure, for example, that you get to class on time? There hasn’t really been a change. It’s more like an adjustment for me. Leaders in positions that seem able to continue and do well, continue to adjust and evolve to whatever the issues are. 

At Temple, we take the position that this isn’t just a public safety issue. When public safety started to talk about how to manage demonstrations and protests, the first thing I did was send an email asking for a representative from IDEAL, somebody from the Provost’s office, from HR, from University Counsel, and Student Affairs. We built a team to go out to these demonstrations and protests so that it’s not an overwhelming police presence. We want our students to feel comfortable having dialogue and discourse around these issues. They’re here to grow and to learn. Our role is to create a safe space. Our team is supportive of each other; public safety is only a piece of it. 

The Faculty Herald: How would you respond to any faculty, students, or staff who might be worried that society or, more specifically, Temple’s campus has become more dangerous? 

Dr. Griffin: I would say, there’s perception and there’s reality. If you look at the reality of recent crime stats, violent crime is going down. It’s going down nationwide. It’s going down in Philly. Our statistics here on campus are good. We’re seeing decreases in a lot of violent crime. Theft, obviously, unfortunately, keeps going up, but that might be from the increase in e-bikes and e-scooters that are tempting for thieves. Most of our students, faculty, and staff will never have an issue here. Or they’ll experience something that’s no different from what might happen in another city. I always want to hear what people’s perceptions are so that I can give them factual information. Preparedness helps people feel like they have some agency. You’re not just a victim walking around. There are things you can do to mitigate, to decrease your risk of being a victim of crimes. So, I try to always listen to people’s feelings because it’s important to hear that, but also share with them the reality of the space we all work in. 

The Faculty Herald: Part of today’s political climate has been shaped by President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to select cities around the United States. Three are active: Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and Memphis. Two others have been blocked by the courts: Chicago and Portland. Philadelphia, so far, isn’t one of the cities named for a future deployment, but it’s not hard to imagine our city finding a list at some point. If the National Guard were deployed to Philadelphia, how do you think that could impact the day-to-day workings of Public Safety at Temple? Granted, the stated purpose of the Guard in these cities is to protect Federal buildings, which are mostly in Center City. 

Dr. Griffin: We’ve heard people express this concern at some of our recent outreach events. Yes, what we are seeing nationwide can be unsettling for people, because the unknown is unsettling, right? For law enforcement, we work with whatever issues we’re presented. If you look at what happened during COVID-19, the George Floyd protests, or during the lead up to the year 2000 when some people thought the world would end, it was all unsettling because the outcomes were unknown. I just try to be really optimistic. We have strong professional relationships with federal, state, local agencies, and with the Philadelphia Police Department.  We’re watching closely what is happening in other cities so that we’re prepared for any changes.

Here at the university, we have a great team of leaders, including President Fry, who are very engaged in these discussions. And if something were to come here to Philadelphia, we would adjust and we would work forward. We would provide support and guidance for faculty, staff, and students. We will always try to respond to people’s questions. But, yes, this is uncharted territory for many people. However, keep in mind that we work with federal agencies all the time. The U.S Marshals have called us before, for example, to say they have a warrant in this area. We help how we can. The FBI also works in our space from time to time. We have communication relationships already, should there be any significant changes. University Counsel has also relationships. Sometimes, the federal government takes an interest in a faculty member’s research, so they reach out asking to speak with that faculty member. We have mechanisms to coordinate and work together. And we just, you know, have to adjust.