Temple University police union chief calls for top brass overhaul

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Temple University Police Association Union President Sean Quinn says the department has recorded the loss of more than 50 officers with only 13 new hires over the past two years.

And Quinn places much of the blame on Temple's Vice President of Public Safety, Dr. Jennifer Griffin.

"Our biggest issue is retaining police officers. Under Dr. Griffin's leadership the past couple of years, we lost over 50 officers, that's including supervisors, some of whom were lieutenants, some were sergeants," said Quinn.

Quinn goes on to say the most common complaints from Temple officers who left included insufficient concern about officer safety and dissatisfaction with the department's overall direction.

But the university says maintaining staffing levels has been a problem within city departments for years now all across the country.

And Temple's COO Ken Kaiser says the university, and Dr. Griffin, are doing what they can with the resources available.

"We opened up the contracts, increased salaries. We have signing bonuses for the officers. We moved to a 12-hour shift to put more officers on the street," said Kaiser.

Temple officials also say that thanks to policy adjustments, the university has enjoyed a reduction of on-campus crime over the past couple of years with officers only responding to approximately one and a half service calls an hour on all three of its campuses.

Quinn says that is misleading.

"We keep getting the 1.5 calls per hour," he says, "and I am sure you guys all heard that. So have we. We look at this as a slap in the face because our calls could take hours."

Still, Kaiser points to improving safety conditions on campus over the past two years as evidence that Dr. Griffin has been a change agent for the better.

"Not everyone is happy with all of those changes, but these changes have improved the safety and professionalism of the organization," he says.

When we asked Kaiser about Quinn's desire to remove Dr. Griffin from her position, Kaiser responded saying that option is not on the table.