UI The Daily Iowan, IA
07-25-07
UI police gun issue comes to fore again
Brian Stewart - The Daily Iowan
As national law-enforcement officials wrap up a four-day audit of the UI police
today, the university remains the only school in the Big Ten with campus officers
who do not carry firearms.
But the UI is not alone in Iowa. Big 12 member Iowa State University is the only
institution in its league that does not arm its patrol members with guns, and the
University of Northern Iowa is the lone school in the Missouri Valley whose
officers do not carry such weapons.
At the request of Gov. Chet Culver and the state Board of Regents, the three
public universities submitted reports this summer on campus-security
procedures.
Charles Green, the assistant vice president for the UI police, feels the
department's officers should be equipped with firearms while on duty. He said
that currently, the university's officers have access to weapons - but only if they
return to headquarters to retrieve them, with permission, when faced with a
serious situation.
"My personal opinion [is that] they should be armed," Green said. "Our officers
are already qualified with weapons - we meet the same qualifications as any lawenforcement officer in the state."
John Carpenter, one of three members of the International Association of
Campus Law Enforcement Officers, which is auditing UI police this week, said
arming campus officers is not always the correct option.
"I don't recommend small schools have police officers," he said, noting that some
institutions can adequately protect their campuses with security guards. "But [at
the UI] we have police officers, they're trained as police officers, and we expect
them to perform as police officers - to not arm them seems foolish to me."
Lisa Sprague, the associate director of the Florida State University police - who
also arrived Sunday to begin auditing the UI police - said the force performs all
the tasks officers at other agencies must perform.
"None of these things can safely be responded to without an armed officer," she
said. "[Not having armed police] fails the officer and it fails the community."
Regent Robert Downer said he's leaning toward arming police at this "very
preliminary time." He noted that a number of other institutions provide campus
officers with firearms.
"I have not, at this point, seen any demonstrable reason as to why we're
different," he said. "I would want to be sure the weapons used are only
necessary to cope with instances on campus."
Regent Bonnie Campbell said she wants to keep an open mind when discussing
the issue at upcoming meetings; the nine-member board is responsible for the
final decision.
"Personally, I don't want people to think that arming campus security is the total
solution to safety," she said, noting campus security guards at Virginia Tech were
armed during the fatal shootings there April 16. "There's a lot more to making a
campus safe than arming security."
Both Sprague and Carpenter - together boasting more than 60 years of campussafety experience - feel the decision to arm the UI's officers must come soon.
The audit, though not instigated by the weapon issue, examines all areas of
campus security in a "peer review" format, Sprague said.
The duo felt the UI's department was one of the best they've seen.
"[The issue of arming campus police] boils down to what role you want them to
play," Sprague said. "The time to decide is now."
E-mail DI reporter Brian Stewart at:
brian-stewart@uiowa.edu