The increase in the number of universities that have armed their officers after each incident indicates that these tragic events had an impact on the decision to arm campus law enforcement officers.
CNA also obtained qualitative data from universities as part of the interviews. When asked about the dates that their officers became armed, some university personnel noted that they made their decisions in response to one or all of these incidents.
A few universities added that although they had started discussions about arming their officers prior to the Virginia Tech shooting, this incident stimulated active discussions among university officials on arming officers and implementing other protective measures. Others stated that they decided to arm their officers in an effort to improve incident-response times.
Colleges Are Actively Considering Arming Their Officers
Recent mass shooting incidents have amplified the need to ensure campus safety and security. In the past nine years, 42% of universities surveyed by CNA that had not previously armed their officers have now become armed. The most significant increases occurred among public universities and in institutions with student enrollment between 5,000 and 9,999 students. Of particular in
terest is the increase in universities arming their officers after significant mass shootings, indicating that institutions are re-examining their protective measures and are actively arming their officers as a way to protect and ensure the safety of their students, faculty and staff.
Arriving at the decision to arm campus and university police forces is complex and involves a continual and active effort by the university and its police department to create and cement strong working relationships with staff, faculty, students, neighboring law enforcement agencies and community members. The decision to arm sworn officers can create concern among the university community stakeholders, making it of utmost importance that university officials refer to best practices and validated processes as they implement this change. Part Two of this article series will address these issues and the processes, which will be published in early 2014.
Methodology
To determine how many universities have armed their officers in the recent past, CNA used data from the BJS 2004–2005 Survey of Campus Law Enforcement Agencies as the baseline of information. We identified the number of agencies that stated they employed sworn unarmed police officers in the survey (n=85). We then filtered this data to eliminate those agencies that noted they employed both sworn armed and sworn unarmed officers (n=15). We used this list to narrow the scope of our research by focusing on only those agencies that did not employ sworn armed officers (n=70) in 2004–2005.
We then conducted phone interviews with each of these 70 universities. Of the 70 universities that we interviewed, four noted that their security forces were armed prior to the 2004–2005 BJS survey; this was likely due to a BJS survey reporting or documenting error. This left us with responses from 66 university police departments to review. During each brief phone interview, we asked, “Are your sworn officers armed?” If the response was “yes,” we then asked, “When were the officers armed?” Responses were provided by the department’s dispatcher, administrative assistant or police chief. If the university was unable to provide any or all information, we reviewed the university police department’s Web site, university annual security and fire safety reports, and related media reports.
To determine the direct impact, if any, of mass shooting incidents on the number of universities that have armed their officers, we examined the number of universities that armed their officers by year from 2005 through 2013. We then compared the annual number of universities that armed their officers to the year that each mass school-shooting incident occurred (2007–Virginia Tech, 2008–Northern Illinois University, and 2012–Sandy Hook Elementary School). We were able to identify the year that these universities armed their sworn officer for 25 of the 28 universities.
About the Author: Denise Rodriguez King is an associate research analyst at CNA. She holds an MA in forensic psychology and a BA in criminal Justice. While at CNA, she has worked on a number of related topics, such as use of force and police accountability. CNA, a not-for profit organization, provides analytic-based information relevant to police officers, criminal justice operators, researchers, public officials, and community stakeholders.
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