A college campus is like a small town. People study, eat, shop, and live there. As a result, campuses need their own police department to ensure the safety of the tens of thousands of people who come to campus to work and learn every day. According to the GMU police website: In 1981, George Mason University’s 21 person security department was reorganized to form an autonomous law enforcement agency. Today Mason has a full service law enforcement agency which has maintained its nationally accredited status since 1991. There are over fifty sworn officers who patrol all three campuses.
Members of the GMU Police Force are state certified police officers empowered to enforce all state and local laws on all George Mason campuses, with the authority to make arrests and carry firearms. They are trained in emergency first aid, criminal law, criminal investigation, defensive tactics, crime prevention, use of firearms, sexual assault victim counseling, crisis intervention, crowd control, and enforcement of traffic regulations.
Spurred by a research request we recently discovered a large number of historical photos from the early days of the police department. Here are a few:
Officers pose outside of Krug Hall.
Cool police buggy.
Anyone who knows Lieutenant Barnes knows that he is one of the most friendly and helpful people at GMU. Here he is in his early days at Mason.
