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New degree program at Woodbury University to take broader approach to criminal justice

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A new degree program at Woodbury University will strive to find a new approach to law enforcement.

This coming fall, the private university’s College of Liberal Arts will launch its four-year public-safety administration program, which will be focused not only on criminal justice but toward teaching students how to improve community relations as well as understand social issues and early intervention.

Doug Cremer, dean of the College of Liberal Arts, said there has been a demand for a program like this at the university, adding that many of the students who go to Woodbury want to earn a degree that they can use to make their local community better.

“We thought that a criminal justice degree would be a really good fit, but we wanted to make sure it had that community-service and community-justice aspect, which is important to our students,” he said. “That’s when we decided to go with a public safety degree, which really gets into the issues of community safety, reparations and restitution.”

As the college developed the program, Cremer said school officials wanted to get away from the traditional “gun and a badge” officer and move more toward law enforcement officials who focus on working with the community — which includes Neighborhood Watch groups as well as community and political leaders.

The program will also teach students how to work with parolees and help them reintegrate into communities after they have gone through the criminal-justice system.

Additionally, Cremer said the degree will prepare students to help heal communities after they have been affected by a violent incident, such as a mass shooting or officer-involved shooting.

“All these things are really important elements of what police units do these days,” he said. “Talking to them, they said there’s been a real need for programs that would not just support sworn officers but also all [of] the support professionals that help out in these areas. We also thought it was a good opportunity to have a broader approach with criminal justice and make it more distinctive.”

Cremer said he is looking to build the degree program from the ground up, hoping to have a freshman class of between 15 and 20 students in the fall for its launch.

Like other new endeavors, Cremer said he and his faculty will make tweaks along the way to ensure the program is successful, both academically and from a real-world standpoint.

“It’s going to be something new for Woodbury,” he said. “The university is trying to get beyond the business- and design-school reputation that we currently have. We’re trying to build out the fact that Woodbury University is becoming a university where you can find a host of programs.”

anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com

Twitter: @acocarpio

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