NEW HAVEN, Conn. ― The police officers who patrol America’s colleges are empowered these days to do far more than respond to campus emergencies.
Campus police around the country are increasingly expanding their jurisdiction beyond the school and into the surrounding neighborhoods, blurring a town-gown divide that colleges say is arbitrary when it comes to crime. Proponents say the arrangement allows schools to keep closer tabs on students who misbehave off-campus—making it easier to refer them for disciplinary proceedings, if necessary—and gives university officers greater flexibility to investigate campus crimes committed by community members. It can also ease the workload of resource-strapped municipal police departments.
“It used to be we were responsible for the campus. Now there’s an expectation, I think, especially with parents, but to a large extent among students, that we’re also responsible for these areas off campus,” said Jeff Corcoran, interim chief of the University of Cincinnati police force, where officers patrol areas near the school. “We’re getting pushed to ignore those imaginary lines on the map and be more proactive in that area.”
Still, a proposed expansion of authority has stirred concerns in Washington, D.C., where residents say university police don’t have the same level of training or transparency requirements as the city police. Campus police officers in the city have arrest powers on campus but participate in a separate, shorter training academy. And because private colleges generally aren’t compelled by public records law to release the same information as public institutions and government agencies, some are concerned about a lack of accountability to the city and its residents.
“If one of their policemen acted inappropriately, there would be hardly any recourse. We’d have no information, no follow-up,” said Ken Durham, a longtime resident of Foggy Bottom, the neighborhood that encompasses George Washington University, part of a consortium of schools mulling broader authority for their police.
Added Marina Streznewski, president of the Foggy Bottom Association, “Expanding the police powers of a university police force without some kind of clear and transparent mechanism is a really bad idea.”
The discussion is part of a bigger debate among universities about what type of powers university police forces should have. It also comes as the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings and the Penn State child sex abuse case have focused public attention on campus crime and on universities’ obligation to report criminal acts under the federal Clery Act.
