6 Ways Campus Cops Are Becoming More Like Regular Police
Despite increased coverage of policing issues lately, the growing powers of campus police departments, both public and private, have largely remained under the radar.
From arresting civilians to working with government defense agencies to playing a role in gentrification, university police departments are becoming more and more like municipal departments, often without the public’s knowledge.
For instance, as municipal police forces have militarized, so too have departments at public universities and colleges. In a recently released White House document on new municipal police weapons bans, the University of Texas police department is cited for its model policy on when and how to deploy its emergency rescue armored personnel vehicle.
And as the private policing industry (i.e., “rent-a-cops”) has exploded – now outnumbering public officers two-to-one worldwide – private campus forces have expanded their numbers, their jurisdictions and their powers.
Institutions of higher education are increasingly modeling themselves after corporations, and campus security has become not only a sales pitch to parents, but to anyone investing in the universities’ interests, whether they be board members or executives considering bringing their businesses to university towns and neighborhoods.
Of course it’s important to value the protection of young people receiving their education. But we must also be aware of campus police officers’ practices.
1. Militarization
On May 18, President Obama announced that federal agencies will no longer be allowed to offload or sell certain military-grade gear – including some armored vehicles, grenade launchers and weaponized aircraft – to local police departments through the Pentagon’s 1033 program. This practice has existed informally since the Eighties, and was ratified in the Nineties with the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act, but the value of tactical items distributed has spiked over the past five years. So far, there’s been no mention of police departments having to give these banned supplies back to the federal government, and agencies can still purchase new equipment of the caliber that’s now banned through the Homeland Security Department’s grant initiative, which, according to journalist Radley Balko, “now dwarfs the 1033 Program.”
Campus police operating at public universities are among the recipients of military gear through the same channels that furnish municipal police departments. In August, the public interest website Muckrock published lists of every item distributed to local law enforcement programs over the previous two years. The documents, obtained through FOIA requests, revealed that more than 100 campus police forces have received military materials from the Pentagon. These transfers include everything from two pairs of overalls (California’s El Camino College Police Department) to a mine-resistant vehicle worth nearly $750,000 (the University of Texas System Police).
Colleges and universities can also apply for Homeland Security grants. Both UC Berkeley and Ohio State University, for example, applied to purchase armored trucks in the past three years. (Only the latter was successful.)
In addition, various campus police forces have undergone SWAT training – a hallmark of police militarization – since 2007. UC Berkeley and West Texas A&M have even hosted SWAT training conventions in partnership with local police departments.
2. Making arrests, carrying guns
Most campus police at public colleges and universities have all the powers of a sworn officer, including when it comes to making arrests.
There is no comprehensive study on how many arrests campus police actually make, but we know from news stories and university crime logs that campus police do indeed arrests students, community members and even university employees and faculty with some frequency.