Shortly after the murder of Sam DuBose by University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing, my pal Lee Pacchia went ballistic. Why do colleges have their own police forces? Why do they need cops with guns? Fair questions, and because it’s Sunday and I’m an accommodating sort of guy, I will do my best to explain.
The New York Times has an article about this particular campus police department, which provides a piece of the answer, particularly the part about what a campus cop is doing ticketing a non-student driving off campus.
Six years ago, with crime creeping upward in the tree-lined, if slightly downtrodden, neighborhoods encircling the University of Cincinnati campus, the city and the university quietly signed an agreement giving the 72-member campus police force authority to patrol nearby residential streets.
The goal was “increased visibility,” university officials say, and the roughly 10,000 students who live in apartments and rowhouses off campus noticed a difference. Campus officers walked them home late at night or gave them rides. “I feel like crime has gotten pushed out,” said one senior, Jen Steiner, 21.
There are a few crucial points in there. First, that a college campus is a city within a city. With 10,000 students, there are safety and law enforcement needs, ranging from crowd and vehicle control to crime. But the campus exists within a larger community, and the gates are unlocked. The public comes onto campus, and the students go off. It’s not as neat and tidy as to distinguish where one starts and the other ends.
Campus police vary greatly from school to school, so this is a generic discussion of necessity. Most campus police are also sworn police officers of the appropriate municipal subdivision, giving them the authority to carry weapons and make arrests. To do so, they go through police training like any other cop. It’s not like they hire them off pizza boxes (yes, that’s a TSA knock).
Not only is there a need for campus police, but a significant benefit to having a police force separate from the regular municipal police. A college campus has different demands than others, a homogenous population of young people who behave like college kids.
Colleges need to deal with their population, but with a level of sensitivity toward their peculiarities that regular cops might not possess. They want to control policy to suit a college population, dorm life, college culture, the arrogance and immaturity of their students. They aren’t trying to put their students in jail, but to keep them safe and under control. It’s a far more specialized and sensitive dance, given the nature of their mission.
This is a good thing. College kids can get kinda rowdy and excited after the big game, and regular police may not be particularly tolerant of their attitude. Even so, campus police are still police, and can go a step too far in their zeal. Bear in mind, as much as a school like Yale may be as effete as it gets, it’s still in New Haven, which can be a rough place.
But unlike regular cops, campus cops are not the main event. Colleges have police departments as an adjunct, necessary but still tangential, to their core mission of education. Accordingly, campus police don’t get the resources for oversight and training that a regular cop may get.
When there is extra money, it goes toward body armor rather than sensitivity training, because cops prefer a decent bullet-proof vest and should a shooter appear on campus, a college’s worst nightmare, that’s when they anticipate the most likely media interest. No school wants to come off as inadequate to the task of protecting its students.
This means that campus police have a gap where regular cops may not. They aren’t as likely to receive ongoing training to address problems and issues that they don’t ordinarily face. That includes such matters as stopping non-students for traffic infractions, and non-students raise safety fears in campus cops that they wouldn’t feel from students. When they stop a university student, they aren’t particularly worried that the kid will do them harm. After all, these students are there for an education, not to hurt cops, and if they did any harm, they know exactly where to find them. No sweat.
But a non-student is an entirely different animal, and an animal they aren’t really trained or prepared to address. Sure, they have the authority. Yes, the college wants to extend out their “jurisdiction” as the campus overlaps with the community and expands their sphere of interest, but where the worst thing a student is likely to do is talk smack, the non-student is an unknown, potentially threatening and dangerous being. This is not within their zone of comfort.
So is it wrong that universities have their own police forces? Not at all. Indeed, it’s far more likely to provide a significant benefit to students to have cops who are more tolerant of their quirks and less inclined to react poorly to their big mouths and childish ideas.
But at that point where campus cops meet the real world, they may not be well prepared, mentally or tactically, to deal with this new population of regular people who don’t pay tuition. And that gives rise to the potential for horrible things to happen, whether out of fear of the unfamiliar, or lack of training, or bias against those who aren’t part of the college family.
Of course, if you happen to be a regular person, off but near a campus, who has the misfortune of having an encounter with a campus police officer, it’s really not your fault that the cop isn’t well-equipped to handle his issues and instead puts a bullet in your head. The bullet from the gun of a campus cop is every bit as real and deadly as a bullet from any other cop. This is a problem.
Nah, I don’t buy it.. it’s an expansion of the police authority period, not to mention an expansion of taxpayer funded authority figures running around with pentagon hand me downs.
The Campus Police Dept.’s are a separate entity, as are the metro, transit, port, etc etc.. sheesh in D.C. there are ‘FBI Patrol’ cars running around.. Why ?
When they need training, do they go & hold hands with the student body & sing protest songs ??
Doubtful. I’ll bet ya they go to the very same asshats that preach the 1st rule as gospel, & never mind that stuff they call ‘law’ or ‘rights’.
Also, think of the perception of the ‘City Police’ towards the ‘College Police’, ‘bunch a friggin “wanna-bees” who couldn’t pass the mustard to get on the porch with us big-boys’. (And yes, I’ve seen this 1st hand.)
I call it the ‘My Badge is bigger than yours’ affliction.
If you want police on the campus, then put them there. But don’t set up an entirely new dept. with a chief who’s accountable to some other bureaucrat, just make them like the guys in the middle/high schools & train them accordingly, as is being done across the nation.
Creating all these little fiefdoms is just asking for a conflict in training, philosophy, outlook, & goals. And in the end, accountability.
You are one tough nut to crack.
My Dad put my brother through college, me, he put through a wall..
That way lies a single national police force. Is that the right way, wrongway?
I’m sure some that goes on. As Scott points out, though, there are several varieties of legal structures. Around here (not gonna say the “T” word, nope), if you act out thinking that the campus police are buffoons who are powerless to stop you, you could be right. Or you could find that, pursuant to a state law and an agreement with the local PD, they have enforcement powers somewhat beyond the campus. Or you could really screw up and encounter a UT System police officer who has statewide jurisdiction.
A lot of cops see a job in a college department as a dream. Good money, little risk, decent working conditions. No, not just wannabes. Not at all.
University of Maryland campus cops are State Troopers.
so they have state wide jurisdiction as well ?? At least they’re troopers tho.. that at least makes sense..
“That way lies a single national police force. Is that the right way, wrongway?”
No sir, that would be like the US Marshals or the DEA or the BATFE or the FBI..
all I’m saying is that if a University is in the city, then put city cops there. Why have a totally new Dept. ? In my mind it doesn’t make sense to have so many chiefs around in one city. And who does the UPD-chief report to ? the Dean ? the law dept ? Why not the mayor just like every other cop that works in the city ?
“‘bunch a friggin “wanna-bees” who couldn’t pass the mustard”
I didn’t say that, the Va. State Trooper did..
Wow, statewide huh… Why ?
“No sir, that would be like the US Marshals …”
You’ve missed the point.
If the University is in the city, then put city cops there. Why have a totally new Dept.?
If the city is in the county, then put county cops there. Why have a totally new Dept.?
If the county is in the state, then put state cops there. Why have a totally new Dept.?
If the state is in the nation, then put national cops there. Why have a totally new Dept.?
SHG gave a bunch of reasons that a totally new Dept. is worth having.
‘You’ve missed the point.’
No, Actually I didn’t.. but just to clarify.. no I think that’s a bad idea..
I just happen to disagree on a separate PD due to a number of issues..
Quick point – at least in NJ, nearly all of the campus police are recruited from the local PDs and are usually the most experience police officers in the city. Generally, they are recent retirees from the local PD and there is no derision since it is considered a really cushy gig. The added benefit is they know the community and are within their comfort zone whether they are on campus or off. Plus, they only take the best officers who can deal with rowdy college kids without shooting them for being hammered ass drunk and doing stupid things.
While NJ shouldn’t be considered a role model for anything else, this is something they seem to do well.
Once again folks, I didn’t say they were ‘wanna-bees’, the Va. State Trooper did..
My problem with campus police is accountability. They report to campus administrators who are not elected officials. I believe that it campus police departments were instead precincts of the local police.
Since they are run by the school, the police of my local public university are not subject to the state’s open records law like the rest of the police. I also believe this is wrong and lowers accountability.
That’s a very significant fault. If they’re cops, they’re cops, and should be accountable as such.
If it’s a state school, then somewhere in the chain of accountability, there will be an elected official. And they should be (and, I would have thought, are) subject to the same open records law as any other police.
If it’s not a state school, it shouldn’t be allowed to have a police force.
It doesn’t necessarily work that way when it comes to education, as there are privacy laws such as FERPA that apply to education that don’t apply otherwise. You should be circumspect about suggesting something you’re not familiar with. If you knew, it would be one thing. When you don’t, best to say nothing.
“You should be circumspect about suggesting something you’re not familiar with. If you knew, it would be one thing. When you don’t, best to say nothing.”
A very good policy in many aspects of life, and one I follow more often than not (and you may believe me or not as you wish). Not a great policy in commenting on blogs. For what better way to learn than to be wrong and corrected by experts, in a forum where the stakes are nil?
The stakes are not nil. Someone may see a comment, mistakenly think you have a clue, internalize something you say, act upon it later, all to their detriment. I have a policy here that SJ not make people stupider. You are free to disagree. Just not here. Glad we straightened that out.
Someone will act upon what I think the law ought to be, to their detriment? I’m not sure you’ve thought this through.
Contrary to your assumption, this isn’t a subject of discussion. This is my blog. You used to be a guest here. See how that works? That’s why it’s always a good practice not to be an asshole, among other things.
Saw this one coming a mile away. Even when she was interesting, there was an arrogance and narcissism about her. Shame. Most have nothing to offer. At least she was occasionally insightful.
I hoped she would grow into SJ and realize this wasn’t all about her. Oh well. Stercus accidit.
“… the arrogance and immaturity of their students. They aren’t trying to put their students in jail, but to keep them safe and under control. It’s a far more specialized and sensitive dance, given the nature of their mission.”
People say that about college students. Meanwhile their less elite peers with low SAT scores, writing less great essays have much higher expectations placed on them. They do not get their own cops, they are assumed to be adult enough to know how to act around real ones. There is less focus on “keep them safe and under control but no jail” College students are “kids”, their non-college peers are not.
It just does not make sense at all? Shouldn’t working 20 years old get the same considerations? Or maybe, if you are smart and disciplined enough to make it to college, why do we assume you are inherently less capable then that working 20 years old?
You’ve omitted one critical point from your question. Working 20-year-olds aren’t congregated in their own city, but interspersed with everyone else.