A PROUD HISTORY OF SERVICE
DEPARTMENT HISTORY
The University of Connecticut or UConn Police Department as it is known today, was first established on April 28, 1972 after the passing of Substitute House Bill 5361, Public Act #119, which called for the “Establishment of a Special Police Force for the University of Connecticut.” The university community would receive law enforcement services for many years prior to 1972 with a dedicated team of Security Officers.
The UConn Police Department’s main Headquarters, which was nothing more than an old farm house, was located at 1501 Storrs Road. This landmark building, which still stands today, can be seen at the top of the hill as you enter the Storrs campus on Route 195.
The UConn Police Department would make the old farm house home until a University Safety complex was built in the early 1990’s. The new University Safety building would open and host its first police department “Roll Call” at 4:00 PM on February 1, 1992.
The UConn Police Department would eventually open Police Department branch offices at the Avery Point campus in Groton, as well as the Hartford School of Law. As the University of Connecticut continued to grow and additional regional campuses would begin to open across the state, the Police Department began staffing a regional campus Police Department branch office in 1998 at the Stamford campus located in downtown Stamford and the Waterbury campus in 2004 located in downtown Waterbury. A new Downtown Hartford campus opened in the fall of 2017, which created an entirely new Police Department branch office.