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U-M Consolidates Security After Delays In Reporting Child Porn On Doc's Computer

ANN ARBOR (WWJ) - In the wake of a scandal caused when a doctor in the residency program went non-reported for six months after viewing child pornography on a hospital computer -- the University of Michigan Health System consolidated and streamlined its security division.

U-M now has one big security system after combining its three departments: housing security, Department of Public Safety, and Hospital Security. Administrators hope the move closes reporting gaps between the formerly separate departments and ensures the child porn incident doesn't happen again.

Rick Fitzgerald, a spokesperson for U of M, said the university takes campus security seriously.

"This new division, all three of those units, will report to a new executive director for Public Safety and Security, who reports directly to the president," Fitzgerald said. "So we brought those units together so that they can work more effectively as a team keeping the campus safe and secure."

He added: "Getting these units to working together, bringing these people together regularly to discuss how can we work more effectively as one big team on the Ann Arbor campus -- We think that really is the way forward."

Fitzgerald said the university has formed a committee to conduct a national search for a permanent director for the new division.

A hospital accrediting group decided not to act following its investigation of the six-month delay in reporting the suspected pornography to police, after another hospital employee saw it on a thumb drive on a university computer. Ex-resident Stephen Jenson, 37, was charged with receipt of child pornography and possession of child pornography after 97 images were found on his computer.

Jenson pleaded guilty in September to federal charges, a sentence is still being hashed out.

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