Campus police

SIGNIFICANCE: Long little more than campus custodians, campus security forces began evolving into modern police forces during the 1960s and in the twenty-first century play important roles in law enforcement.

Campus police forces trace their origins back to 1894, when Yale University hired two New Haven, Connecticut, police officers to patrol university grounds. Those first two campus officers were hired simply as campus “watchmen,” and their duties included patrolling the university grounds and watching for fire, water, or other damage.

Over the next half-century, as other universities throughout the United States followed Yale’s example, the campus “watchman” system predominated. Most officers hired by university and college administrators had no formal law-enforcement experience and were typically people who had retired from other occupations. Rarely performing any true police or law-enforcement functions, they acted in a custodial capacity for their campuses.

A subtle transformation in the established watchman system occurred in campus policing in the 1930s and 1940s. During the late 1930s, campus guards were increasingly entrusted with additional duties, including some with true law-enforcement functions, as well as the enforcement of campus rules. However, while these quasi-police officers were still used primarily as campus custodians, they had the added responsibility of campus social control.

Emergence of Modern Campus Police

Modern campus police forces finally began to emerge during the 1950s, as American colleges and universities were entering an era of unprecedented growth in both student enrollments and campus sizes. During that period, university and college administrators began acknowledging the need for the full-time presence of law-enforcement officers on their campuses. Many chose to hire retired municipal police officers to act as campus security officers.

These newly hired campus security officers began the transformation of campus custodians to full-fledged security officers and, finally, campus police officers. In an effort to become more professional and autonomous, campus security officers generally broke away from the traditional affiliations with physical plants and affiliated with upper administrations. However, despite the administrative and organizational changes occurring in campus policing during the 1950s, the primary duties of the officers remained custodial. They had no more power to police the behavior of students and campus visitors than any other ordinary citizen.

Until the 1960s, the legal doctrine of in loco parentis (in place of parents) guided the relations of campus security officers and students. This doctrinal basis created many unforeseen problems for campus security as well as administrations. Campus security officers might legally be able to detain troublesome outside visitors to their campuses, but enrolled students who caused problems were generally referred to campus administrators for disciplinary action. Moreover, campus security officers had to refer cases involving faculty or staff to local municipal police.

The last major shift in campus policing occurred during the era of campus social unrest as part of the counterculture of the 1960s. As student protests became increasingly unruly, college and university administrators were forced to admit that they had to create more efficient mechanisms to deal with the growing problem of campus strife. In conjunction with previously hired campus security officers, college administrators utilized the existing model of municipal law enforcement. As a result, campus police started reorganizing along the lines of traditional paramilitary police hierarchies, complete with badges, police uniforms, and firearms.

In the twenty-first century, campus police witnessed increases in the size of most departments, as college and university enrollments continued to grow and other factors, such as the increased threat of school shootings, became more prevalent. By 2023, nearly every college and university had its own campus police department. Duties of campus police officers in the twenty-first century include routine patrols, building lockup, personal-safety escorts, and alarm monitoring. According to a 2018 report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 25,000 full-time sworn officers were serving public buildings and facilities in the United States. Almost half of these worked for a campus police department at a four-year public university or college.

Events in the early 2000s further highlighted the importance of campus police and turned a more critical eye on those forces. In addition to school shootings, such as the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre in which thirty-two students and staff were killed, hate crimes increased on college campuses in the late 2010s and 2020s, especially against Black, Jewish, and LGBTQ students. Rising mental health issues among university students, which were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, likewise presented new challenges for law enforcement on college campuses. In 2024, the role of campus law enforcement came under the spotlight again after several campus protests related to the Israel-Hamas War turned violent.

As a result of decades of growth and professionalization, campus police forces have evolved from campus custodians to the modern campus police forces seen on today’s college and university campuses. As educational requirements for recruits have grown more rigorous, campus police have become increasingly similar to municipal law-enforcement agencies, and campus police work is now becoming an important law-enforcement career choice.

Bibliography

Anderson, Melinda D. "The Rise of Law Enforcement on College Campuses." The Atlantic, 28 Sept. 2015, www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/09/college-campus-policing/407659/. Accessed 3 May 2024.

Fisher, Bonnie, and John J. Sloan. Campus Crime: Legal, Social, and Policy Perspectives. Springfield, Ill.: Charles C Thomas, 1997.

Goldstein, Dana. "Hate Crimes Reported in Schools Nearly Doubled Between 2018 and 2022." The New York Times, 29 Jan. 2024, www.nytimes.com/2024/01/29/us/hate-crimes-schools-universities.html. Accessed 24 June 2024.

McCarthy, Kara. “4-Year Colleges, Universities Had Nearly 32,000 Law Enforcement Employees; Nearly Half Were Sworn, Armed Officers.” Bureau of Justice Statistics. Office of Justice Programs, US Dept. of Justice, 20 Jan. 2015. Web. 24 May. 2016.

Powell, John, Michael Pander, and Robert Nielsen. Campus Security and Law Enforcement. 2d ed. Butterworth-Heinemann, 1994.

Reaves, Brian A. “Campus Law Enforcement, 2011–12.” Bureau of Justice Statistics. Office of Justice Programs, US Dept. of Justice, 20 Jan. 2015, bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/campus-law-enforcement-2011-12. Accessed 24 June 2024.

Rengert, George F. Campus Security: Situational Crime Prevention in High-Density Environments. Willow Tree Publishing, 2001.

"What Campus Police Are and Are Not: Seven Important Distinctions." Axon, 15 Aug. 2023, www.axon.com/resources/campus-police. Accessed 24 June 2024.