This morning on the Capital Beltway, I passed two police cars that were marked as “National Institutes of Health POLICE.” WTF does NIH need (or have the authority to have) police?
Most likely, it’s a name for those who handle security at their facility. Colleges have campus police to do that, for instance.
It’d be just the same legally as a security guard.
The NIH campus is a tightly controlled complex of buildings and labs. It is a government run, cutting edge medical research facility where thousands of government employees and scientists work. Apparently, the NIH campus is on a list of critical targets for possible terrorist attacks.
Actually no, I believe the NIH Police are Acadamy trained police officers (the Federal Police training center in Georgia) with full police powers. I do not know their exact jurisdiction, but they can make arrests and fill out the paperwork.
I work for Pepco (the DC electric company) and have had dealings with the NIH before. Of course Pepco uses security guards and in-house special police officers for security. The special police officers also have the same power of arrest as a regular police officer while on Pepco property.
This would lead me to believe that they are Police Officers in the real sense.
Also, since College police officers were mentioned, State University police (for the U of MD., the U of MD Eastern Shore, etc…) are considered a branch of the Maryland State Police, and have jurisdiction everywhere in the state.
I don’t doubt that they need security, but do they have full police powers?
Can their cars be marked as POLICE if they do not have legal jurisdiction with police powers? Can I paint POLICE on my own car and say it’s the security vehicle for the Gas Estate?
I apparently was wrong about the jurisdiction of campus police in MD. I’m trying to find something definate.
More info. The NIH campus police have the same authority and responsibility as any other police officer. I know from visiting the campus that they have guns and have a canine unit just as a regular urban police force.
I used to do midnight bicycling through the cavernous Walter Reed NIH parking underground lots in Bethesda in my mis-spent youth, the NIH guard was always sitting in a car napping the several times I went through there.
They have jurisdiction on at least NIH property, I was given a warning by one once for pulling through the bus stop to pick someone up. It’s no different then having a city police car. I also see Federal Police where I work sometimes, though we are not a secure building.
As for the UM police, Frostburg State, which is part of the UM system, does have uniform Maryland police. I wouldn’t be suprised if the other UM campuses did as well.
They very well could. The University of California has their own police force, complete with sworn officers, arrest powers, jurisdiction of 1 mile surrounding any UC campus, and automatic weapons. Plus radar guns for those pesky speed traps.
Attacks by animal rights folks too, since presumably there would be large-scale animal testing going on.
Since 9-11 NIH has surrounded the campus in a wrought Iron perimeter fence and begun to tightly controlled the entrances and exits with 100% ID checks and forcing Visitors through a rigorous enterance process. Prior to 9-11 the NIH “Campus” was just that - designed to be very much open and like a college Campus, This tightening was the subject of trully incredible hand wringing and clothes rendering in surrounding Toney Bethesda.
The NIH Police can detain, but not arrest people at the Metro facility on Campus – I have witnessed this a time or two.
There are several secure Buildings on Campus that need real protecting.
FTR the NIH has its own Fire Department too. It has to – becuase the local FD can’t handle Toxic Chemical fires or Lab Spills in a Biosafety-III lab. To a lesser extent the same is true of the Police – We could ask should a local Barney Fife or a rent a cop protect a Bio-Lab full of Monkey Pox – or trained Feds?
Given that NIH has BSL IV labs that have all sorts of nasty germs and buggies in them, there’s a very good reason for real police up there.
There was a story some time back in Albuquerque about a private security company that used a paint scheme very close to the APD scheme for their cars. The cars said PATROL, not POLICE, but they really looked similar. The company was forced to change the paint scheme. Here’s the article from the Google cache. I assume that trying to do so anywhere would probably get about the same response.
Medical research seems like such a nice, safe, field… but aside from the potential of terrorist attacks, animal rights whackos, and various levels of biosafety hazards, some of the more alarming e-mails and letters received at the research unit I work at indicate that there are a number of people who, not liking the results of a particular research project, seem willing to attmpt physically force reality to conform to their wishes. Or failing that, use physical force to persuade someone to say what they want to hear.