Not all campuses were available with ratio figures, but of those asked, only CSU San Diego had a higher enrollment with 32,000 compared to CSUN's enrollment of 27,000. Their ratio was one officer per 1,280 students. Sugar said the largest staff of officers at CSUN was during the 1990-91 year when the police employed 24 to 25 officers. The smallest number of officers worked just last year, with 16 officers on staff. Since the campus police hired three more officers in October, the ratios balanced out a little more.
Money is the continual issue when it comes to staffing the campus police.
But the time it takes to hire a new officer is also a factor. Sugar said the police are trying to implement policies that would allow for quicker hiring of new officers. The process is very lengthy to hire police officers. It could be as long as six months because of the things we are required to do by law. The campus police tends to hire lateral officers, those officers who have already received training and may be actively working at another law enforcement agency.