Director of Public Safety and Emergency Management David DeVoss describes how his campus achieved this accreditation.An increasing number of college departments of public safety are becoming accredited by outside firms to strengthen their campus crime prevention strategies as well as improve their agencies’ policies, practices and equipment. Doing so not only increases security, it also bolsters community confidence in their campus public safety departments specifically and the university overall.

Most institutions of higher education are familiar with accreditation programs from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) and the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators (IACLEA). However, the World Health Organization also provides such a service.

In December 2012, Murray State University became the first public university in the United States and only the third in the world to be formally designated an International Safe Community by the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Community Safety Promotion.