The areas the two departments will have concurrent authority over include the “Square Mile,” defined as the area bordered by Chestnut Street, Locust Street, Sycamore Street and Patterson Avenue, Ohio 73 from Patterson Avenue to the City of Oxford limits, Bonham Road from Sycamore Street and Tallawanda Street to the Miami University property limit and streets north of Sycamore Street and East of State Route 732.
OPD Lt. Lara Fening said the agreement came out of discussions on how to better serve the Oxford community.
“Because Miami University and the city have so much overlapping area and there are so many people that we serve,” Fening said, “we think it’s smart to have this coordination of effort of how we approach giving these people good service.”
The agreement has been in place since 2021 and showed to be good coordination between OPD’s 31 officers and MUPD’s 23 officers, according to Fening.
Fening said even though MUPD can respond to calls in Oxford, OPD will be the responding department “99.9% of the time.” Although MUPD doesn’t respond to calls in OPD’s jurisdiction often, Fening said the past three years have built trust between the two departments.
“It’s a relief and a comfort to know that since we work closely together, we know how each other works,” Fening said. “and we can be comfortable in how [MUPD officers] will handle that call.”
Joshua Chapin, associate director of university news and communications at Miami University said it helps with enforcement at events, too.
“The agreement allows for additional law enforcement assistance for major events such as athletic events, concerts, etc.; maintenance of law and order; major case investigation; and witness to offense/traffic violation or accident,” he said.
This allows the two departments to share investigation notes and equipment such as MUPD’s forensic computer capabilities.
The agreement will expire June 30, 2027, if it isn’t extended.
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