Loyola University Chicago

Campus Safety

A Message from the Director

At colleges and universities throughout the nation, campus security departments focus on protecting lives and property. While this remains at the core of our responsibility, the 21st century presents new challenges: We now also have to be prepared for incidents with unimaginable consequences. As a result, campus law enforcement agencies must progress from ordinary security forces to become professional campus safety units, empowered with police authority on the campus, as well as for a specified area surrounding the campus. 

Recognizing these trends, Fr. Michael Garanzini, S.J., President of Loyola University Chicago, commissioned a comprehensive study that demonstrated the need for a professional police department to protect the Loyola community. After exhaustive research and employee recruitment, Loyola University Chicago's Campus Safety became a sworn police department. 

At present our administrative personnel are in place. These individuals bring with them a wide range of experiences and skills from within the Chicago police Department and other reputable police departments. Their cumulative backgrounds represent several centuries of law enforcement experience. 

We remain totally committed to crime prevention and to ensuring the safety of all of our students, faculty and staff. To accomplish these goals, we believe that it is paramount to forge partnerships with all segments of the Loyola community as well as to maintain strong relations with our neighbors and community groups. 

We believe this can be accomplished and look forward to sharing new ideas, exchanging information and achieving mutual objectives through such activities as open forums and establishing task forces. 

Our officers recognize that working in a University setting is very different than other police departments. As such, our officers work to provide valuable services to the Loyola community that go above and beyond the normal police duties. 

I hope you will take the opportunity to review this website to familiarize yourself and others with the safety programs and services provided by the Department of Campus Safety. Please remember that campus safety is everyone’s responsibility. 

Tom Murray
Chief of Police and Director of Campus Safety