How Armed Are RI’s Campus Police Forces?
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Colleges and Universities across the state may get the opportunity to arm properly trained campus police - on campus, if the House Judiciary committee sends a bill allowing for changes to the current law to the floor for full vote.
"Unarmed campus police cannot go into a critical situation without the proper tools to do their jobs," said Vincent Vespia, Chief of Police in South Kingstown. "To do so is a suicide mission."
An unarmed police force is operating at a disadvantage..
The RI House Judiciary committee will hear testimony Wednesday on a bill to allow for the arming of campus police officers on Rhode Island’s state campuses. The bill provides properly trained officers the abiity to carry firearms as long as they "have successfully completed the Rhode Island Municipal Police Training Academy or its equivalent and a firearms training program as required."
Presented just weeks after a gun scare on the University of Rhode Island campus at Chafee Hall, the bill’s submission eliminates language in the current law requiring campus police officers to “not carry firearms unless expressly authorized by the board of governors” of education.
"The South Kingstown Police Department is the closest in proximity to the URI campus," said Vespia. "We are the first to respond behind campus police officers. With the propensity for violence that is being seen on college campuses, you cannot send police officers in to perform their duties unarmed. I would not want to be police officer serving within a department that did not provide me with proper tools."
"The University of Rhode Island campus police are trained in the exact same manner - the exact same curriculum as the South Kingstown police, including becoming firearms training certified," Vespia said. "To train these officers - to take away their ability to do properly do their job - is demeaning and inappropriate."
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTMajor Steven Baker, who heads the University of Rhode Island police department agreed.
"Our campus police want to be the first responders to incidents on campus," Baker said. "These officers respond to incidents every day. They have to respond to potentially volatile incidents every day without knowing what to expect and without the proper firearm necessary to protect the people they are ordered to protect or themselves."
University police are presently armed with batons and pepper spray.
"This department is fully trained. My officers have full powers of arrest. They take disturbance calls, domestics, conduct car stops, investigate drug and alcohol incidents. They have to respond to each call, armed or not. That is their job to protect the campus," Baker said. "We were the first ones on scene at Chafee Hall for report of the gunman. We are the only state university police department in the country that is not armed."
"The president of the university is behind us," Baker said. "President Dooley has been supporting us all along and there is a new board of education. We are hopeful that the change will come."
Police contingent supporting the change.
The bill was introduced in February and is sponsored by Joseph S. Almedia, (D-Dist. 12), a retired Providence police officer who served the city for twenty years. Joining Almeida, are Rep. Raymond A. Hull, (D-Dist. 6) Providence, a 24 year veteran of the Providence police department currently holding the rank of sergeant, Freshman Rep. Dennis Canario, (D-Dist. 71) a retired Portsmouth police officer, also having served twenty years, and Rep. Scott J. Guthrie, (D-Dist.28), Coventry, a retired North Kingstown firefighter who co-chairs the Police and Firefighters caucus with Almeida.
Ken Glantz, Executive Director of the National Domestic Preparedness Coalition and retired Captain of the Orange County Sheriff’s Office in Florida, gave approval to the bill, too.
"Anytime you put people, men and women, in uniform and then ask them to protect a group of people, you re putting them and the people they are supposed to protect at risk, if they don't have the necessary equipment to protect themselves and others," said Glantz.
Urban campus response time is shorter.
Lisa Pelosi, Director, Media Communications and Relations for Johnson & Wales University (JWU) offered another perspective on the subject.
“Historically, the University has not armed its security force. The response time, because of our urban location in the City of Providence, is very low. We don’t have an issue with response time and have chosen not to arm our security staff. Our staff is not a police force with municipal police force training. It is a different situation. “Pelosi said. “Our security force is very visible on campus and purposely maintains a high visibility, interacting with students and patrolling the campus area.”
The Johnson & Wales security is staffed with thirty-six members: 25 patrol officers, 6 supervisors and 5 command staff. The JWU downtown campus also has a police substation located right next door to its public safety office on Weybosett Street.
“The new police substation is right next door to our public safety office, so we in all practicality have police right on campus,” said Pelosi. “They are right there with us, so we are prepared.”
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