For Grand Valley State University’s School of Criminal Justice, a combination of skill, prominence and friends in all the right places has earned them a $15,500 grant from the Michigan State Police Emergency Management and Homeland Security Division.

William Crawley, associate dean of the College of Community and Public Service, said the grant provides support for SCJ faculty to advise and facilitate the Emergency Management and Homeland Security Division of the Michigan State Police.

Professor Jim Bolger of the SCJ has led the partnership with the Michigan State Police since the grant was created in 2005 to start the Michigan Intelligence Operations Center.

“We were instrumental in coordinating the privacy policy, which is a guideline that the Michigan Intelligence Operations Center uses to gather and disseminate information,” Bolger said.

The story starts after Sept. 11, 2001 when Bolger said the federal government realized a lot of its data would better serve public safety if there was a way to fuse it together in one place.

Bolger, who was the project manager in the matter, said to get the privacy policy up and running, representatives from civil rights, ACLU, law enforcement and prosecutors all had to come to an agreement on how to gather and assimilate information while not violating any constitutional rights.

“Bottom line is that the federal government put out some policies to encourage states to set up what we call ‘fusion centers,’ and this is gathering information about threats and venting those to make sure there is some substance to them,” Bolger said. “Then, if appropriate, we pass those along to the right agency to investigate.”

Although only a handful of SCJ faculty are involved in the partnership. Having people from the academic arena there, Bolger added, was advantageous in coordinating and facilitating the discussion during the creation process.

“He (Frank Hughes of the SCJ department) also used a couple grad students in compiling a survey,” Bolger said. “It was a good learning experience for them to have in regards to criminal justice and collecting data.”

Originally, Michigan State University was the primary assistant to the state police while GVSU primarily assisted the former. In more recent years, however, the state has asked GVSU to take the reigns as a stand-alone partner in the planning and operations processes.

Crawley attributes this bestowment to “the growing capacity demonstrated in (GVSU’s) services,” while Bolger speculates a positive background and good standing played a big role in snagging the spot as the state police’s right-hand man.

“I think because of Grand Valley’s reputation and some of our faculties’ contact with the executive leadership of the state police, we were awarded with the homeland security contract,” Bolger said.

Crawley said grants like the one awarded to SCJ help the university to better connect with and serve our community.

“It is a chance to connect the theoretical concepts studied in the classroom to the professional practices delivered in the field,” Crawley said.

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