Georgetown University Police Department (GUPD) provides a range of crime prevention programs and services for members of the campus community, in coordination with other offices as needed, designed to enhance personal safety, prevent and deter crime and respond to incidents.
Student Guards
Student Guards play an integral role in protecting the campus community. They supplement security guards at the entrances to residence halls and other facilities to help maintain security and enforce building access policies.
Self-Defense Classes
The Georgetown University Police Department and the Student Safety Advisory Board are pleased to offer basic self-defense courses. These four-hour workshops include both information on risk reduction as well as instruction of a number of hands-on techniques. Check back here for dates for the fall 2024 semester, which we will be sharing soon. Sign up for any upcoming classes here.
The Fall 2024 semester class dates are:
Thursday September 12
Wednesday October 12
Monday November 4
Wednesday November 20
Sexual Assault Services
The Georgetown University Police Department works with the Health Education Services’ sexual assault services coordinator and other entities to respond and report incidents of sexual assault in a caring and supportive manner. The Georgetown University Police Department Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) has specially trained officers who respond to reports of sexual assault. If you choose to report to the Georgetown University Police Department, ask for a SART officer.
Crime Prevention Services
The Georgetown University Police Department manages a number of crime prevention programs designed to help reduce the occurrence of crime on campus and in the neighborhoods around the University.
Community Liaison Officers
The Community Liaison Officer Program was created in 2008 as a way to further advance relationships between GUPD and the rest of the community. Each community liaison officer is assigned a particular residence hall or building on campus, and works closely with the residents or employees in that building. The CLOs participate in meetings, crime prevention programs and serve as a point of contact and representative for the Georgetown University Police Department.
Some highlighted activities are Taco Tuesday, ice cream socials, corn hole tournaments and Coffee with a Cop.
This site will be updated at the beginning of each semester with CLO contact information. If you are interested in any of these activities for your building, reach out to police@georgetown.edu.
Laptop & Equipment Registration
The Georgetown University Police Department offers laptop computer registration services designed to help prevent thefts and assist in the recovery in cases of theft.
Portable electronic devices have come to play a pivotal role in people’s lives. Laptops in particular can be central to work and school projects. You can save your work in the cloud, back up your hard drive, but your laptop will likely still carry information that is critical to you.
Basic Laptop Registration (Free): If your laptop should get stolen and it is registered with the Georgetown University Police Department, the campus police will be able to return it to you if it is recovered.
It is even better if your laptop has been registered with the national database using STOP Theft so that if it turns up at another police department anywhere in the country, GUPD can get it back to you.
STOP Theft service comes with a permanently affixed label and means that your laptop and contact information are added to a national registry. The label itself acts as a deterrent.
For Basic Laptop Registration you can enroll online and an email confirmation will be sent to you. You can also bring your laptop in so that we can assign your tracking number in person.
Bicycle Registration
The Georgetown University Police Department (GUPD) offers free bicycle registration to university students, faculty and staff. Students may additionally register with the National Bike Registry (NBR). Bicycle registration is no longer required in the District of Columbia, but we encourage you to keep your bicycle locked and have it registered in order to facilitate its return in the case that it is stolen.
Student Safety Advisory Board
To create greater transparency and partnership between GU’s student body and leadership regarding campus safety, the Georgetown University Police Department has a Student Safety Advisory Board (SSAB). This advisory board provides students the opportunity to identify campus safety concerns and provide feedback to GUPD leadership for their resolution.
The board meets on a bi-weekly basis at a dinner meeting. The SSAB consists of a mixture of students and is open to all. The Chief of Police and on occasion some of his staff attend all SSAB meetings to discuss with students their topics of interest.
Interested students are encouraged to email police@georgetown.edu to express their interest in being on the SSAB.
Field Stop Demographics
In an effort to track the demographic information on who GUPD officers stop we will be collecting some information about the person stopped. Any information provided by the person who has been stopped will be voluntary. Examples of this information will include the date and time, reason for the stop, the location of the stop, race, gender, campus affiliation, NetID and last name of the person stopped. GUPD officers will provide an information pamphlet to each person stopped.
An individual may be stopped, questioned and identified in two ways:
Citizen request for service – A citizen contacts GUPD either by phone or by flagging down an officer and requests them to investigate a situation of concern involving a person. Either a citizen points out the person or the citizen provides a physical description to the officer.
Officer-initiated – An officer while on duty identifies circumstances that result in stopping an individual to conduct a further investigation of the situation. The legal standard for initiating a stop is a minimum of reasonable suspicion.