New bill could arm university police

By: Robert Preliasco

Posted: 4/2/08

04/02/08 - A bill before the Rhode Island General Assembly could issue firearms to University of Rhode Island police officers.

The bill has not yet been voted on and no specific date for a vote has been set.

Called the Maintenance of Order on Campus Act, the bill would amend a section of Rhode Island General Law to require an armed campus police force at all of Rhode Island's higher education institutions.

The law currently leaves the decision to arm the campus police force up to the Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education, which oversees the state's colleges and universities.

Andrea Hopkins, URI assistant vice president for public affairs, said that the university is opposed to the legislation.

"We've always maintained that the Board of Governors should retain the authority over whether campus police should be armed, and this bill takes that authority away," she said.

At a URI Faculty Senate meeting last week, president Robert L. Carothers stated his personal opposition to the legislation and noted that the Faculty Senate is also opposed by a ratio of "about five- or six-to-one."

But he also said that the issue is important, given recent incidents of campus violence, and said that the arming of URI police will eventually happen.

Aside from the removal of authority from the Board of Governors, Hopkins said that another problem with arming the campus police is the cost. The bill does not specify where the funding will come from to arm each police officer and to provide the specialized training that is necessary for carrying a firearm.

Maj. Stephen Baker of URI police said that it would cost about $1,000 to arm each officer. There are currently 23 officers on campus with three positions vacant. There would also be costs associated with giving each officer specialized training, but Baker did not have an estimate for those costs.

Baker said that he would like to see URI police armed. He said that he would prefer that the decision be made by the Board of Governors, but he is not opposed to the current legislation.

"We are the first responders on campus," he said. "If the case arose where we needed the option of deadly force, we couldn't be the first responders in that situation. We want to be able to keep the community safe."

Both the police department and the URI administration are in agreement that the department should have a special certification if it is armed. All URI police officers are graduates of the Rhode Island Police Academy, where they received two weeks of firearms training. But Baker said if the URI department is authorized to carry weapons, "there would be quite a bit of [additional] training for each officer involved."

He said the department is also working toward being nationally recognized by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, or "CALEA."

"We feel its something we can obtain in approximately 18 months," Baker said.

Recognition by CALEA involves conforming to more than 100 standards for the department's operating procedures and personnel practices. It would be a sort of partial accreditation for the police department. Only a few police departments in Rhode Island are fully accredited, including the Rhode Island State Police, and accreditation is not a requirement for carrying firearms.

Some of the standards for full accreditation involve cell blocks and holding rooms built to specifications that URI does not meet. Baker said that he would like to update these facilities but the funds to do so are not available.

The URI Student Senate has not yet discussed the idea of arming campus police because its new members have just been sworn in. Academic Affairs Chair Cristin Langworthy said the senate has opposed legislation of this type in the past.

"Historically, the student senate has been in opposition to legislation to arm the campus police," she said.

Student Senate President Thomas Ahrens, who was sworn in last week, said that he will urge the senate to address the issue of campus security as a whole, and said that given the recent violence at Northern Illinois University and Virginia Tech, the URI police department should be armed.

"The whole issue of campus security is something we'll have to look into," he said. "The university needs to make sure it can protect its students and professors."

State Sen. Harold M. Metts (D-Providence), who put forth the Maintenance of Order on Campus Act, did not return calls to his office seeking comment by press time.