By Charles H. F. Davis III, Ph.D. and Kamara B. Porter, Ph.D.
Essay originally published in the The Chronicle’s The Future of Campus Safety report
Calls to abolish police from college campuses have grown considerably louder over the years. In particular, following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, colleges were forced to seriously consider their role in legitimizing the institution of policing. For decades, however, concerned students, faculty, staff, and community members have sounded the alarm that, for marginalized people, campus policing is as detrimental as municipal policing.
Beyond the moral arguments against policing, evidence-based research has chipped away at the notion that police forces should be part of a campus community. Various news stories and emerging research have shown that they are ineffective at preventing the kind of harm and violence most commonly associated with college life.
The specific functions of campus police — surveilling local communities, enforcing campus boundaries, and responding to crimes after they have occurred — don’t help marginalized students who experience emotional, physical, psychological and sexual violence in such places as college classrooms, fraternities and sororities, residence halls, and social clubs. Those students most vulnerable to harm and violence continue to encounter danger despite the often robust presence of campus police officers — officers who come at a considerable cost to many college budgets.
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Charles H.F. Davis III is an assistant professor of higher education and director of the Campus Abolition Research Lab at the University of Michigan, and Kamaria B. Porter is an assistant professor of education (higher education) at Pennsylvania State University.