MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. -- With golden leaves falling, Golden Gopher students are walking and biking everywhere.
"We have, obviously, a huge campus with faculty, staff, and students - one of the largest in the nation," said Matthew Clark, the University of Minnesota Chief of Police.
The U of M is like its own city; nearly 50-thousand students, plus 18-thousand more faculty and staff.
And, working to protect everyone is Clark, who's leading a campus department of 55 full-time officers, 120 more part-time, and 140 security monitors.
"So, we have 43-hundred cameras on campus and that's monitored 24-7 with an emergency communications crew. We have great dispatchers, great monitors," said Clark.
Still, they can't stop all crime.
Sunday, October 28, the U's Police Department responded to a robbery near Ferguson Hall on the West Bank. A student was walking when they were pushed down by a group of 8-10 males who then stole the student's backpack and damaged their iPhone. The student suffered minor injuries.
According to the U's yearly "Safety and Security Report," over the last three years, reported criminal offenses on campus are up in most categories, although it's hard to know why.
"We know that crime does go unreported and so sometimes with those statistics we're not sure whether there's an actual increase or whether people are willing to come forward and report crime," said Clark.
Either way, Clark says, the U's goal is to make it safer, so they're adding more cameras, locking more buildings, and having officers monitor areas, all night and day. Plus, there's a walk program where security meets students to walk across campus with them - at any time.
"We're using our resources effectively and that's our focus that we're quick in responding, we're listening to our campus community and we're able to take care of incidents and issues that happen effectively," said Clark.