The University of Maryland Task Force on Community Policing is pushing back the release of its recommendations until the end of the spring semester, university President Darryll Pines told The Diamondback on Monday.
In October, behavioral and social sciences dean and task force co-chair Gregory Ball told The Diamondback that the task force expected to release their recommendations by January or February. However, some task force members felt that there needed to be more community engagement before they recommended anything and requested an extension, Pines said.
“Nothing changes overnight,” Pines said. “They requested the extension because they wanted to engage the community further and get all the different attitudes and opinions.”
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The task force will host a listening session Thursday for university students and recent alumni to express their thoughts on campus safety, following a previous listening session held in December.
The task force will send out a survey to the university community to collect additional feedback, Ball and Bonnie Dill, arts and humanities college dean and task force co-chair, wrote in a statement.
“It is our sincere hope that this anonymous survey offers the UMD community another opportunity to offer honest feedback about the experiences they have had with policing and safety on campus, broadly conceived,” Dill and Ball wrote.
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With additional time for the task force to listen to community members, Pines said the community should be pleased with the recommendations.
“There should be no arguments about what they’re recommending because they will engage the various constituencies of our community, which is the whole purpose of why they’re extending the time,” Pines said.
