Temple University Department of Public Safety responds to officer concerns

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Temple University's police force is worried about its numbers.

The Temple Univesity Police Association posted a statement on X claiming the department has lost 55 officers since August 2022.

It attributes that drop in staffing to leadership issues and officer safety concerns.

The TUPA also claimed that Temple University's website stated the department employs more than 130 sworn officers.

However, according to the police association, only 41 patrol officers are currently employed.

The university addressed the claim in a statement to Action News, saying:

"The webpage that the Temple University Police Association (TUPA) referenced in their social media post is an auxiliary Temple webpage, owned by another department, that was last updated on Sept. 10, 2015, and included outdated information. The page has now been removed. It is disheartening that TUPA would accuse TUDPS of lacking transparency rather than alerting the department to the inaccurate webpage, so TUDPS could work with the owner of the page to correct the issue."

(Editor's note: This article has been updated to clarify Temple's response)