Temple plans to hire dozens more officers following staffing & safety assessment

PHILADELPHIA -- Temple University is planning to expand its police force following an independent staffing study that found the department meets essential needs but lacks resources for top-tier service.

The study was conducted by safety consultants Healy+ and COSECURE. Temple announced the completion of the study on Thursday.

Temple currently has 77 sworn officers and based on the study's recommendations, intends to hire 37 more over the next five years, including 29 patrol officers, six sergeants, one detective and one lieutenant.

The phased plan aims to move the department to the second tier of Healy+'s framework, developed to assess law enforcement agencies' effectiveness and capacity. Temple's Department of Public Safety currently sits below the middle tier of that framework.

"I feel very strongly that in any campus environment, it's gotta be safety first," said Temple President John Fry. "If you have a safe environment that people have confidence in, that's the way you recruit great students, great faculty, and great employees."

Sitting down exclusively with Action News alongside Temple's Public Safety Vice President Jennifer Griffin, Fry acknowledged the challenge ahead.

"On the financial side, we have a five-year plan that we're working all of this into our long-term budget," Fry said. "That's a real challenge, but I think the bigger challenge is going to be the recruitment. We're going to have to force ourselves to really think, there's a lot of competition out there. What are we going to do to make Temple University really sort of stick out as an employer of choice?"

The staffing study fulfills the last major recommendation of a safety audit released in early 2023, led by former Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey and his firm, 21CP Solutions. It followed the killing of 21-year-old student Sam Collington near campus in late 2021.

Safety concerns have remained in focus following other incidents, including the death of 20-year-old Chase Myles in a drug-related shooting in early 2025 and reports of assaults and robberies near campus involving large groups of unruly teens, also earlier this year. Griffin said more officers will mean stronger engagement and proactive policing.

"With more staff, it's going to give us the ability to do different engagement and also more proactive policing, get out into the community more, run more programs," Griffin said.

"It's not just about staffing. It's how you also use strategy. Our technology, our equipment, is second to none. We've made huge investments." Griffin went on to say, "Campus is very safe, but we also have issues like any urban environment and any university. Many people feel safer when there are more police around. We've done a lot of different things, so this is just another one of the strategies that we're using."

Students expressed support for the plan.

"It's very hopeful to me that Temple isn't just plateauing here, but they're continuing to increase the amount of public safety and public safety officers in the area," said one recent graduate.

"A lot of times we get emails that are quite scary about things happening around the roads, particularly close to campus, so if we can get more security and predictability around that, I think that'd be really good," said Tom K., a Ph.D. student.

Fry said the plan looks beyond immediate needs.

"Ten years down the road, we think about the kind of development we want to do on Broad Street, the kind of support you want to provide for neighborhoods, we'll really need more police officers," he said.

Temple will bring back the same firm that conducted the previous audit to ensure accountability as they pursue new goals. Philadelphia police have also committed six bike officers and one sergeant to embed with Temple Police starting January 5.

"We know that a stronger Temple and a stronger Philadelphia go hand in hand," Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said Bethel said.