After Key Vote, Johns Hopkins Will Probably Get Its Own Police Force

André Chung for The Chronicle

The Johns Hopkins University cleared a crucial step in securing an armed police force on Thursday, when Maryland’s House of Delegates voted 94-42 in favor of a bill to establish a campus force. Earlier this month, the state Senate also voted in favor of authorizing armed officers on the campus.

Hopkins’s proposal, introduced by two lawmakers, would allow 100 armed officers to patrol three of its four Baltimore campuses. The new force would replace Hopkins’s current unarmed force of 1,000 security guards and its unit of armed, off-duty Baltimore Police Department officers who work part time for the university.

Administrators say the force has become a necessity as violent-crime rates in the city continue to rise. According to federal public-safety data, 20 cases of aggravated assault took place on the three campuses in the fall of 2017, up from four in the fall of 2015.

Two-thirds of four-year colleges with 2,500 or more students have armed police officers, according to a Justice Department survey. Public colleges are more likely to have their own force than are private colleges, but nearly half of the students at the private institutions surveyed were on campuses with their own officers. Private urban institutions like the Universities of Pennsylvania and of Chicago have private forces. While drafting the proposal for the force, President Ronald J. Daniels of Johns Hopkins consulted with the leaders of several institutions with their own private police forces, including Chicago and the University of Southern California.

Still, the legislation has been contested by community members, students, and lawmakers who are concerned about a potential lack of accountability in a city well-known for bad policing. Protesters interrupted the floor session in the House, chanting, “No private police!” before the vote, according to The Baltimore Sun.

The House and Senate will have to resolve differences between the two versions of the legislation before presenting it to Larry Hogan, Maryland’s governor. Governor Hogan has said he favors a Hopkins police force.

The bill has been amended several times since it was proposed. New oversight provisions added to the House version would require a member of the university’s Black Faculty and Staff Association to sit on an accountability board for the force. Officers would be required to be trained in the legal use of searches, and required to wear activated body cameras. Another amendment bans the force from using surplus military equipment.

The Senate bill includes amendments that would make the force subject to Maryland’s Public Information Act, which is similar to the federal Freedom of Information Act, and would allow the Baltimore City Council to approve patrol areas.

A spokesman for President Thomas V. (Mike) Miller Jr. of the Maryland Senate told the Sun that the chamber would very likely agree to the House amendments.

While both governing bodies voted overwhelmingly in support of the bill, some delegates are still expressing their hesitation about how quickly the legislation is moving. Del. Stephanie Smith, of East Baltimore, told the Sun that a young boy recently asked her how he would be protected from the private police force.

“Their concerns are about an entity that has no expertise in policing, that has a compromised relationship with the community that is multigenerational,” Smith said.

Baltimore’s mayor, Catherine Pugh, and Police Commissioner Michael Harrison have vocally supported the proposal. Supporters in the legislature, like Del. Cheryl D. Glenn, also of East Baltimore, say the force would attend to the obvious problem of crime.

“The first issue that’s addressed to us is public safety. What people are afraid of is crime,” Glenn said to the Sun.

Public institutions in Baltimore, including Morgan State and Coppin State Universities, already have their own private police forces. If the legislation passes, Johns Hopkins would be the only private college in the state with an armed police force.

Zipporah Osei is an editorial intern at The Chronicle. Follow her on Twitter @zipporahosei, or email her at zipporah.osei@chronicle.com.