USA Today
09-20-07
Universities rethink unarmed police
By Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY
Five months after the Virginia Tech massacre, some of the few remaining
universities that do not permit campus police to carry guns are rethinking the
firearms bans.
The April 16 tragedy, the deadliest campus shooting in U.S. history, prompted a
national reassessment of campus security plans, including whether to arm police
who had not previously carried guns.
"There are police forces that have the responsibility to make life and safety
decisions, and they don't have the full equipment to do it," says Raymond
Thrower Jr., president of the International Association of Campus Law
Enforcement Administrators.
"It's like giving a firefighter a car and telling him to go put out the fire without the
truck and the rest of the equipment."
Many public universities already have armed police, according to the Justice
Department, which is poised to release a new report on campus police agencies
in November. The department's most recent report, in 1996, found 81% of public
universities had armed police agencies. It expects to see a slight increase in the
number of campuses permitting officers to carry guns.
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Austin Peay State University
Among universities and legislatures weighing changes:
• On Tuesday, Iowa Gov. Chet Culver, a 1988 Virginia Tech graduate, endorsed
a recommendation to arm officers at the state's three public universities, which
serve more than 50,000 students.
"Unfortunately, horrific acts, like the one at Virginia Tech, can take place," Culver
says.
The Board of Regents, the governing body for the universities, this week asked
for a safety plan that would include arming campus police.
•Nevada education officials next month plan to take up a proposal to allow some
college faculty members and staffers across eight public campuses to carry guns
as part of a special reserve officer corps.Half the Nevada schools allow campus
police to carry guns.
•Auburn University, which in 2004 allowed the city of Auburn, Ala., to take over its
armed police patrols, is expected within the next month to receive an assessment
of its entire security operation, including its agreement with the city, says Bob
Ritenbaugh, a university assistant vice president.
• In Oregon, a legislative proposal to permit university officers to carry firearms
failed earlier this year, leaving all serious law enforcement issues at the
University of Oregon and other public colleges to state and local police.
The proposal has been offered twice in the past three legislative sessions and
will likely come up again, says Dawn Phillips, a spokeswoman for Republican
Rep. Linda Flores, who supported the bill.
Although the proposal predated the Tech shooting, Phillips says it was "mired in
the politics around the Virginia Tech" tragedy.
"It was too close to the Virginia Tech shootings," says Democrat Rep. Suzanne
Bonamici, an opponent of the bill. "I didn't believe it was the right bill to approach
the problem."
Brian Reaves, author of the new Justice Department report, says a few large
campus agencies remain unarmed, despite the mass shooting at Virginia Tech.
"You would think that after Virginia Tech, it would be a slam-dunk argument,"
Reaves says.