# Tell me about campus police **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 22, 2011, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-campus-police/603739 "2011-11-22T13:36:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2011, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-campus-police/603739/21 "2011-11-23T03:45:09Z")
While at MIT, I was highly amused that the MIT Police were sworn police officers, while the Harvard police were rent-a-cops, despite the fact that Harvard was almost twice as large as MIT. ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2011, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-campus-police/603739/22 "2011-11-23T04:20:33Z")
Every campus I’ve attended or worked at had its own police department, and yes, they were sworn officers. I was good friends with some officers and detectives at Cal Poly… they were in the midst of a student disappearance, tons of meth, mushrooms, and weed, underage drinking. One of the officers was a former LAPD homicide cop. **Absolute** , when were you at MIT? During my time at Harvard (late 90s, most of 2000s) the cops were most assuredly real. Campus cops are supposedly more familiar with the student body and have a more educational job, I expect. We always had cops come to the residence halls for “drunk demonstrations,” beer googles, and at Poly, even a self-defense course (the sort where you use verbal defense and avoidance). When major events happen they typically work with other LEOs. But seeing as large universities have 20K+ students, plus all of the issues on campus (and they have master keys!) it makes sense that many campuses would have them. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2011, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-campus-police/603739/23 "2011-11-24T15:57:04Z")
I worked for security for the University of Utah. We were attached to the campus police department, but we were a separate branch. The head of security reported to the chief of police. The police were sworn officers. We were not. They had guns, we carried radios. Our job was primarily to lock and unlock buildings and to walk around campus at night to make sure everything was fine. Their job was to hang out at Village Inn and drink coffee. They had blue polyester uniforms and we had ugly brown ones. They were better paid (but still less than the Salt Lake police) and we were minimum wage+, but got tuition breaks. ---
**Author:** ![2gigch1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/2gigch1/32/3313_2.png) [@2gigch1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2gigch1)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-campus-police/603739/24 "2011-11-25T01:11:52Z")
University of Maryland, College Park has a real police force, currently Chiefed by David Mitchell, former Md State Police Superintendant. They take their policing pretty seriously, and keep their own 911 center and mutual aid to the local community as needed. Are they equal to a county police force? No, but they are professional enough to do as much as they can then hand off as needed. Doing news in DC we rarely do “U of MD Police Screwed Up” stories. [Link](http://www.umpd.umd.edu/) ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-campus-police/603739/25 "2011-11-25T01:46:47Z")
The cops at my school were real, carried guns, drove police cars, etc. Not sure how far their jurisdiction extended, but they patrolled the neighborhoods around the university, and it wasn’t uncommon to see them pull over people on city streets that were near the school, but not part of campus. Also their police station was basically just an administrative office, and when they arrested someone I believe they took them to the county clink to be processed. ---
**Author:** ![JerseyMarine2092](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8491ac/32.png) [@JerseyMarine2092](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerseyMarine2092)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-campus-police/603739/26 "2011-11-25T02:33:38Z")
American University in DC (both my civilian employer and alumni mater) has a professional Public Safety department. It includes both sworn officers with full LEO powers, special police with limited LEO powers, and part time student ticket writers. None of the force is armed, and for serious crimes MPD would be called in. And no, they’re not widely respected by the student body… but that’s probably nothing personal. I don’t think students as a whole have respect for law enforcement. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-campus-police/603739/27 "2011-11-25T06:22:12Z")
Does anybody know whether the jackbooted thugs who pepper sprayed the sitting protesters at UC (was it Davis?) were “real” police? I got the impression they were. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-campus-police/603739/28 "2011-11-25T07:18:37Z")
The police at the University of California campuses are sworn police officers. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-campus-police/603739/29 "2011-11-25T15:52:07Z")
I’m going to suggest that there’s going to be a difference between private & public (i.e. governemnt-owned) colleges / universities. Fully empowered law enforcement will be nearly universal on government-owned campuses. And less common on private ones. Not to say it’s rare on private campuses; it certainly wasn’t at my private university. ---
**Author:** ![Zeriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/58956e/32.png) [@Zeriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeriel)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-campus-police/603739/30 "2011-11-25T20:28:28Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I’m going to suggest that there’s going to be a difference between private & public (i.e. governemnt-owned) colleges / universities. > > Fully empowered law enforcement will be nearly universal on government-owned campuses. And less common on private ones. Not to say it’s rare on private campuses; it certainly wasn’t at my private university. I’m going to bet that the actual correlation is with size of school, especially relative to the town in which the school is located. Case in point–in PA, of the public universities with which I am familiar (about 6), only Penn State has its own police force, largely because it is as large as the rest of the town it’s in and the others are smallish schools in medium-sized towns. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-campus-police/603739/31 "2011-11-25T22:21:34Z")
Campus cops in Ohio range from unarmed security guards who have little if any training, all the way up to graduates of the Ohio Peace Officers Training Academy who are sworn officers and can carry guns, make arrests, conduct investigations, etc. Depending on the level of crime on- and near-campus, the setting of campus and the size of the student body, universities and colleges can decide for themselves what mix of policing they want. IME most campus cops are not terribly well-regarded by the students. ---
**Author:** ![lawbuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/13edae/32.png) [@lawbuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawbuff)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2012, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-campus-police/603739/32 "2012-01-07T17:37:01Z")
I also live in Ohio and here is the state law on Police on a private college campus; [http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/1713.50](http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/1713.50) ORC 3345.04 lists the authority for State Univeristy Officer’s. They have power of arrest ON Campus and if entered into an agreement with the Municipal corporation they are located in they can also have full police authority off campus. The Ohio Highway Patrol can also investigate criminal laws on state property, but have NO arrest powers for the criminal laws off of state property, except when called upon by the governor for a riot etc. They have the same powers of search and seizure as other Peace officer’s but, oddly enough, thier arrest powers are limited. This is not including traffic law enforcement, that is statewide on any road period. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2012, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-campus-police/603739/33 "2012-01-07T17:44:36Z")
The campus cops at my local state university started out as security. They couldn’t use the word Police on their cars. I’m sure their powers were limited too. But they did some investigations and arrested people. Eventually the legislature made them full cops. New Police emblems for the cars. They seem to be a fairly professional force now. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2012, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-campus-police/603739/34 "2012-01-07T21:53:21Z")
> [@Duke](#): > > I’ll answer this question at least. When I was at Penn State from 1989-92 and 1994 the campus cops were pretty much loathed. The main complaint was that they spent an awful lot of time chasing minor infractions which happened to draw a cash fine while ignoring serious crimes like theft and assault. In retrospect, focusing a little more on the latter might have helped a bit in the Sandusky case. > > I also remember the Minority Students’ Association argued (and a lot of students agreed) that campus cops didn’t trust black students, and women’s groups thought they didn’t take crimes against women seriously. I should also note that during my dad’s time at Penn State there was an on-campus murder, and the campus cops totally bungled the crime scene. [The case remains unsolved.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betsy_Aardsma) But that $5 ticket for riding your bike on the sidewalk, they are all over that. At my alma mater, I believe that there was a perception that the Kampus Kops were primarily interested in alcohol and drug busts (Drunk in Public / “DIP”, DUI, Possession of MJ, Underage Possession of Alcohol, etc.), and basically didn’t care if your laptop got swiped from the library or if someone dented your car in a parking lot and then fled. ---
**Author:** ![Minnie\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Minnie\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Minnie_Luna)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2012, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-campus-police/603739/35 "2012-01-08T01:14:43Z")
\*\* > [@md2000](#): > > In some places, campus police are a full police force (it seems the Penn ones were?). \*\* > [@](#): > > The University of Pennsylvania Police Department (UPPD), with 116 members, is the largest private police department in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and maintains the second largest number of full-time sworn police officers amongst all private Universities across the United States, and the third largest number of sworn police officers for all Universities nationwide, both public and private. > > All personnel of the UPPD are full-time sworn municipal police officers certified through the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Municipal Police Officers Training and Education Commission, and retain general law enforcement authority and order maintenance for the area in which the University of Pennsylvania is situated. In my 11 years at Penn, I have found there are few complaints about the Penn Police. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2012, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-campus-police/603739/36 "2012-01-08T01:28:56Z")
I’m pretty sure the person actually running the Penn State police has said he was never notified of the shower incident. There was some Vice Chancellor over them and he allegedly never told them. He’s one of the guys recently arrested in the cover up. I’ve worked at a state university for over 20 years. There’s always a Vice Chancellor that’s ultimately in charge of several departments. For years my computing services department was under a guy that was over several unrelated departments that reported to him. One of them happened to be the campus library, and the Public Safety dept. This VX knew nothing about any of these depts. He was simply the guy on the Org Chart in charge. His main job was making sure his departments got the proper funding every year from the budget. We reorganized years ago and now Computing Services reports directly to the Chancellor. Public Safety became a real police unit but they still report to a VC. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-campus-police/603739.md?page=1)