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Queen’s is the only university in North America to have a peer-to-peer security service. Supplementing the 24/7 work of Campus Security and Emergency Services, the Alma Mater Society (AMS) group members focused on student safety  are present when students gather at a campus pub, attend a dance or cheer on a football game at Richardson Stadium.

Paid student constables, or “StuCons,” have been part of campus life since 1936, when the AMS instituted a student-run system consistent with the university's long tradition of student self-discipline. As the Alma Mater Society evolved in the late 19th century, it took on increasing authority over the daily lives of Queen’s students. Its constitution obliged students to refrain from any behaviour “unbecoming a member of the AMS.” A student court doled out sanctions to students who failed to meet this standard.

In 1936, student constables were paid out of a levy on the student body to act as peacekeepers at campus social events. They were deployed to dances, debates, protests and football games. When the opened in the 1970s, constables also began to work at campus pubs.

Recruited from second-year undergraduates and above, the constables initially wore armbands to proclaim their authority. Those who ignored this authority ended up in AMS Court, paying out small monetary fines and facing impositions on their campus freedom.

For many years, the constable service was largely male. In 1973, for instance, only 20 of the 120 constables were women.

Since 2009, QSC staff must be licensed under Ontario’s 2005 Private Security and Investigative Service Act, and so Queen’s StuCons are trained security professionals.

In 2022, the student constable service was renamed as "Queen's StuCons", in order to ensure compliance with the Private Security and Investigative Services Act, 2005, and to distance the services provide from policing models to a focus on peer-to-peer safety. 

While the old yellow armbands have been replaced by full yellow jackets, StuCons continue to administer a large measure of students' own law and order – working at events and pubs on campus to ensure the safety of patrons and event staff, to enforce the governing regulations of the AMS, and to uphold the regulations stipulated in the Liquor Licence Act of Ontario.

The longevity of this model of self-regulation has inspired other student safety initiatives at Queen's where students help other students, such as the Walkhome Service and the Campus Observation Room.