Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier, IA
09-16-07
Issue of arming campus police to be settled soon
By EMILY CHRISTENSEN, Courier Staff Writer
CEDAR FALLS --- The issue of arming campus police officers has divided the
University of Northern Iowa campus for decades.
Questions abound about whether officers protecting the college --- considered
one of the safest in the country --- need to carry weapons to do their jobs.
Officers say yes: They do the same job as city police officers and should be
equipped accordingly.
But it isn't just UNI's officers talking about the issue this time around. Since
school began last month campus communities in Cedar Falls, Iowa City and
Ames have spent hours debating the issue. The Iowa Board of Regents will
finally have its say when members meet Tuesday in Council Bluffs.
On one side are stories like Steve Carignan's. His father was dean at a small
college in Maine when he was shot by a student upset about an expulsion.
Despite Carignan's extreme dislike of guns, he supports the UNI Department of
Public Safety's request to carry arms.
"My point is that this can happen on any campus, no matter how safe you think it
is," said Carignan, assistant vice president for educational and sports event
center management.
On the other side stand professors like Jerome Soneson and Katherine Van
Wormer. Van Wormer has researched the impact of guns on police officers and
the problem of what professionals describe as suicide by cop. She worries these
issues may become more prominent on campus should university officers be
armed.
Soneson, an associate professor of philosophy and religion, worries more about
the potential for mistakes. Last month he shared several stories, including that of
Eric Shaw, a 31-year-old man killed by an Iowa City police officer while working
in his downtown studio. Officers were in the building looking for a burglar and
entered Shaw's apartment. The officer accused of firing the weapon originally
said he thought the cell phone in Shaw's hand was a gun. He later admitted firing
the gun when he flinched.
"These were highly trained police officers," Soneson said during an open forum
on campus last month. "The UNI campus security guards have asked to carry
guns for years now. ... Guns are unsafe.
"Even highly trained police officers make mistakes, and no amount of training will
keep this from happening," Soneson said.
Despite the argument, UNI President Benjamin Allen has recommended regents
allow campus police officers to carry guns. University of Iowa President Sally
Mason and Iowa State University President Gregory Geoffroy agreed.
"The recommendation to arm UNI police officers is based largely on the fact that
the risk to police officers in meeting their responsibility without proper equipment
is real," Allen wrote to the regents.
Why now?
All three state universities were already immersed in a review of safety
procedures when the massacre at Virginia Tech occurred April 16. The reviews
included everything from emergency management plans to how to warn faculty,
staff and students of danger from natural disaster or a gunman on campus.
The studies continued, but at the request of Gov. Chet Culver results those
reviews were sent to his office and the Legislature in July.
Currently, university officers can request to carry firearms in certain situations. All
requests must be approved by the school's president or vice president.
"This has been something that we have advocated for and recommended for
years," ISU Capt. Gene Deisinger said. "This is not due to a change in crime
statistics or driven, at least on our part, by the horrible tragedy at Virginia Tech.
Our focus is not on the mass murderer."
Deisinger said the reason falls closer to home.
"My greatest concern is for that officer doing the traffic stop at 2 a.m. tomorrow
morning with a subject who is willing to go to extreme measures to not go back to
jail," he said.
Some changes are already under way at Iowa and ISU. Outdoor warning
systems and emergency notification programs using voice and text messaging
were installed at those colleges earlier this year. Allen said UNI is still looking at
which systems will work best.
Gary Steinke, executive director of the Board of Regents, has received letters
supporting officers with weapons from people in the Johnson County area.
Steinke said board members know their decision will upset many, regardless of
how they vote.
"The board would never raise tuition if they were afraid of making an unpopular
decision," Steinke said. "We need to concern ourselves with the fact-based
information. Most campus police forces are armed and in our conferences, we
are the only ones who aren't.
"Those are the kinds of arguments that will make the difference. This is certainly
not based on a poll."
More guns
Katherine Van Wormer, a UNI professor in social work, knows most colleges
already arm their police forces. But that doesn't make the decision right in her
mind.
A federal survey of 581 four-year colleges completed in 1995 showed about 81
percent of police departments at public schools had armed officers. Another 34
percent of private schools also did. The survey went out to campuses with more
than 2,500 students.
More recent data apparently isn't available, though David Zarifis, director of the
UNI Department of Public Safety, said anecdotally he knows more campuses
have armed their officers in the last 10 years.
"It's interesting because there are hardly any murders at all on those university
campuses," said Van Wormer, who recently studied crime statistics reported by
campus police department. "That data was never available to anyone, and now
they have to report it. I learned a lot just looking at that. I just figured there were
dead bodies found on theses campuses."
Van Wormer said some crimes exist that no gun will prevent.
Zarifis couldn't agree more. But he points to a photo on his computer screen that
shows two tables covered in weapons --- all confiscated by officers in previous
years.
"A weapon is no guarantee of anything, but we have to acknowledge the
possibility. This is a known," Zarifis said.
Van Wormer, a Quaker, is a strong advocate for gun control and would love to
see the United States implement a system similar to the one she grew
accustomed to in Norway.
"The police officers are very professional and have law degrees. I once asked an
officer how he would feel about being armed. He said, 'If we got guns, then
criminals would get guns,'" Van Wormer said.
"They feel very professional not carrying guns. They were actually insulted by the
question."
David Goodson, founder of Social Action, said the university should look at other
options. In addition to the worry about increased racial profiling, Goodson said,
universities should leave the role of policing to city law enforcement agencies.
Goodson argues universities should employ unarmed security guards.
Universities could then provide money to local law enforcement agencies to hire
additional officers to police campuses.
"If the universities already have law enforcement agencies, that is just wrong.
That means that churches should set up their own law enforcement agency, or
every business should have their own law enforcement agency," he said. "Who
does law enforcement in America? Do we have a police department in Iowa City?
In Cedar Falls? In Ames?"
Tools
Campus officers in Iowa are equipped with handcuffs, pepper spray, a night stick
and Tasers. Jim Schumann, a regional director for the International Association
of Campus Law Enforcement Agencies, said most days that is enough.
"Guns are not an offensive weapon for an officer. They use it as a last resort. But
if they need it and don't have it, they will never need it again," he said.
"The last thing you want to do is shoot someone. But the other alternative isn't
very good either."
The association recommends trained and certified campus officers --- who are
asked to perform the same functions as city, county and state officers --- have
the same tools to do their jobs.
However, when an incident involves a gun, campus officers must disengage.
"That policy just doesn't work. That flies in the face of everything else these
officers have been trained to do," Zarifis said.
Zarifis said it is an easy call when a weapon is present. He simply doesn't send
his officers.
Instead, he calls the Cedar Falls Police Department.
Chief Rick Ahlstrom said his department responds as soon as possible, but it
could be several minutes before they reach campus. Priority calls --- such as a
death or shooting situation --- generate an immediate response. Ahlstrom
estimates the department's average response time to calls on UNI's campus is
three to five minutes.
Under a sharing agreement between UNI and Cedar Falls, the university's
officers also back up city police when needed. However, Ahlstrom said, UNI
officers can't help in every situation.
"Anytime there is a potential for weapons or crowds where there is a potential for
people to be armed, we can't call them. And if we do, it is to maybe handle our
routine calls while we handle that," Ahlstrom said.
To those who think police with guns are trigger happy, Ahlstrom offers this
statistic: In more than 30 years as a Cedar Falls officer, he cannot recall an
officer discharging their weapon except during training or to dispose of an animal.
"Have we had them out? Yes. Have we had them in situations where they could
be useful? Yes," Ahlstrom said. "But we have been very successful in our calls to
de-escalate the threat without the use of our firearm."
The decision
No matter what the Board of Regents decides this week, Zarifis said, some
serious conversations are needed on university campuses.
"There is a lot of work to do whichever way this goes," he said.
Allen said if regents agree to arm campus officers, universities will have to take a
serious look at how guns will be introduced and how to make those on campus
as comfortable as possible with the change.
Allen's recommendation to the Board of Regents also requests officers recertify
in the use of firearms at least twice a year and continue to enhance their annual
training on topics like diversity, conflict resolution and community-oriented
policing. The Department of Public Safety and UNI Public Safety Advisory
Committee will be asked to establish a more transparent review process for any
situation where a gun is drawn or fired.
If the proposal is denied, Zarifis and ISU's Deisinger said, the universities must
reconsider the role of campus police.
"Fundamentally, this is a decision about whether the campus community wants a
security department or a police department," Deisinger said.
"No other law enforcement agencies are asked to perform at this level with the
responsibility and risk without a firearm. I think the direction is then implied by the
decision. I grow increasingly uncomfortable asking officers to perform all parts of
their job without all the tools."
Deisinger said there is nothing wrong with security guards, however they can't
provide the service campus communities are accustomed to.
Van Wormer, the UNI professor who opposes arming officers, said even if the
board opts not to allow campus officers to carry guns they should continue
offering the same level of protection to university students, faculty and staff.
"They do their job so well now. I see them as completely competent as they are,"
she said. "They seem to be saying they can't protect people ... yet they have
been providing very good protection.
"I like it just the way it is."
Contact Emily Christensen at (319) 291-1570 or
emily.christensen@wcfcourier.com.