Amid calls to overhaul policing nationwide, Boston residents and students have renewed debate over whether campus police departments should carry firearms.
“Arming campus police officers with guns is the equivalent of handing officers a double-edged sword,” said Hannah Nivar, a Northeastern University Student Government senator, in a written statement. “While their capacity to ensure safety is enhanced, their ability to perpetuate unjustified violence is extended.”
Nivar and the association representing more than 20,000 students called for “a conversation that has long been neglected … Should campus police carry firearms?”
Residents attending a virtual town hall — hosted earlier this month by Sen. William Brownsberger and Reps. Chynah Tyler, Jay Livingstone and Jon Santiago — echoed Nivar’s request for renewed debate.
“Can we have a discussion about disarming these police forces?” asked one attendee, recalling Berklee’s decision to arm university police officers in 2017, with little community input.
“We should examine closely the equipment all police, including university police, are using, eliminate military equipment, and figure out what is appropriate for each department,” said Livingstone. “I look forward to this public discussion.”
Appeals to restart this conversation come as protestors nationwide continue to demand the defunding of police departments, more community policing and a ban on certain practices, including the use of chokeholds. In Boston, Gov. Charlie Baker has been working with the Black and Latino Legislative Caucus on a bill expected to pass that will implement new standards of training and certification for police officers. Boston City Councilor Michelle Wu also filed an order earlier this month, asking for data on the Boston Police Department’s weapons inventory.
“People say it’s ‘The Police’ in the United States and so they conflate all 18,000 police departments into one logic,” said Michael Davis, Northeastern University Police Department’s chief of police, who spent 21 years as an officer and chief of police of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. “What we try to do with our community is say ‘Look, there’s the police function in the United States and then there’s your police department,’ and encourage people to come to us and have the conversation … We’re not secretive and we’re all available for that.”
Broken trust
But in 2015, the NUPD was criticized for arming some of their officers with semi-automatic rifles. “This is a step backwards for community policing and encourages mistrust and fear,” wrote then-Councilors Tito Jackson and Josh Zakim in a letter to Northeastern’s president, Joseph Aoun.
Davis defended the decision as appropriate preparedness for an emergency that may require the use of these weapons, like an active shooter situation. “In responding to active events in a densely populated campus, accuracy over distance is just essential,” said Davis, adding that these guns do not fire at a faster rate than a handgun but give highly trained officers to ability to respond swiftly and with greater accuracy.
During a semester, 65 NUPD officers protect about 25,000 students and staff across Northeastern’s 80-acre campus, Davis said. While he gave no precise number of how many officers have access to long guns, he said “It’s not everyone and its not a small component. It’s enough people of our contingent so that we could respond capably and quickly to any event.”
The NUPD are nationally accredited and trained to the same standards as municipal police departments. Arming officers is about ensuring swift action, said Davis. “Anything that we do in terms of having a capability is really us trying to reduce the response time to mitigate any impact of an event that happens on campus.”
Berklee’s police department started arming their officers in June 2017, before proper notice was given to local residents. A public meeting to discuss the move was held months after firearms were distributed. Although Berklee apologized for their lack of community engagement, residents were outraged by their actions.
Police and public safety officers at Berklee did not respond to requests for comment.
The Boston University Police Department has 49 officers serving a community of 40,000 to 50,000, according to Colin Riley, Boston University’s executive director of media relations. BUPD officers are also trained to municipal police standards and carry firearms. All officers receive firearms training in the police academy and qualify twice annually.
BUPD officers protect the university’s communities and properties “mainly through education and prevention,” said Riley. “BUPD officers are the first responders to incidents on campus, including any acts of terror or active shooter incidents, ensuring prompt emergency response time to critical incidents.”
Brownsberger, during the community Zoom meeting, acknowledged that police militarization does exist, but that “the notion that you wouldn’t have any arms among college police forces is probably not a viable idea … Do we want police to be able to respond and are they going to be dependent and waiting for the Boston police to arrive when somebody goes nuts and starts shooting up a place?”
The decision to arm campus police officers should be made by each institution, said Brownsberger. “I think that’s something the universities need to decide themselves. I don’t think there’s a legislative answer to that question.”
But some of his colleagues disagree.
Legislating firearms for public college police officers
A bi-partisan bill currently under review on Beacon Hill will allow the Board of Higher Education to overrule public college trustees and require police officers at any state educational institution carry firearms. Sponsored by Sens. Paul Feeney and Bruce Tarr, and Reps. Harold Naughton and Timothy Whelan, the bill targets Massachusetts College of Art and Design, the only four-year public college in Massachusetts without armed security.
“As a parent of two college educated daughters, I know the demand families rightly place on the campus police for the safety of their loved ones,” said Whelan, a retired state police sergeant with 26 years law enforcement experience. “I want our colleges and universities to be protected by campus police officers with the training and equipment necessary to swiftly diminish a threat to the lives and safety of the faculty and students.”
The notion that arming officers leads to an escalation of violence “is a false narrative,” said Whelan. “I don’t believe, in any way, there will be any escalation of violence resulting from campus police officers being armed … I believe it equips them to protect themselves and others in the unfortunate circumstance of someone using deadly force.”
In February 2019, MassArt’s Board of Trustees voted to maintain the college’s longstanding policy of employing an unarmed campus police force, a position trustees remain committed to, said Ellen Carr, MassArt’s executive director of marketing and communications. “Along with our colleagues at public educational institutions across the Commonwealth, we will follow the deliberations as the legislature considers this bill.”
Referred to the Ways and Means Committee June 8, the bill, if voted favorably, it will next move to the Senate floor for discussion.
Commitment to conversation
Mandated or allowed to decide, students and community members hope institutions continue to engage with them and are open to their considerations.
“There’s a very serious conversation about how much force do we need to be using to respond to problems in our society generally and the answer is probably less,” said Brownsberger during the town hall.
“Intent matters in policing,” said Davis. “When we see folks bombarded with images of poor behaving police officers, what people think is that the intent and the predisposition of police officers is not noble. For our organization that’s fundamentally not true.”
Nivar hopes student voices will feature more prominently in discussions about any future changes in on-campus policing. “The conversation from 2015 regarding arming NUPD officers must not die,” she said. “It is necessary that the conversation surrounding disarming campus police in 2020 incorporates the voices of our students, specifically elevating the voices of our minority students … it is time for Northeastern administration to listen and take action accordingly.”
“Unfortunately there’s not panacea here,” said Davis. “It’s really about building trust over time.”
He welcomes conversation with students, staff and faculty at Northeastern. “We don’t want to create something that people are fundamentally uncomfortable with under the guise of safety, “ said Davis. “We’re all human beings here just trying to do the best we can for one another. … it gets lost in the soup of controversy and turmoil and conflict and that’s why I’m willing to have a conversation, I’m 100% for that.”
A version of this story was published in the Boston Guardian, June 26 2020.
Catherine McGloin 