A Case for Abolishing Campus Police

December 12, 2023 in Commentary, Essay

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.

Imagining Abolition and Educational Safety Beyond Policing →

November 14, 2023 in Essay

The parallel movements for police-free schools and police-free college campuses encouraged educational researchers to further investigate education’s policing problem, but also the broader realities about public safety at the intersection of education and society. Altogether, new demands emerged for the abolition of school and campus police as well as the socioeconomic conditions that necessitate their presence.

Why HBCUs Need Abolition (And the Rest of Y'all Too) →

December 16, 2022 in OpEd

Yesterday morning, Leila Hamoud, a Black woman undergraduate, was arrested in her classroom at Winston Salem State University (WSSU) by university police officers. Dr. Davis and the Campus Abolition Research Team weigh in on the promise of abolition for our nation’s HBCUs.

An Inconvenient Truth: More Police on Campus Won’t Prevent Gun Violence →

February 22, 2022 in Commentary, OpEd

Temple University senior Samuel Collington was shot and killed last November during an attempted robbery and carjacking near his North Philadelphia apartment. Collington’s death by gun violence followed the fatal shooting of an 18-year-old Philadelphian near Temple’s campus two weeks earlier.

Los Angeles Police Department officers clutching batons outside Former District Attorney Jackie Lacey’s home (Photo credit Charles H.F. Davis III)

If Black Lives Matter to Colleges, They'll Defund Campus Police →

July 09, 2020 in OpEd

Under intense pressure from mostly Black community organizers, some local governments are responding to demands to defund the police and divest from law enforcement. The push to reduce police budgets and reliance on police intervention in noncriminal matters has been accompanied by calls to invest in more resources for people and communities.

Miami Dade Police arrest peaceful protestor in South Florida during the 5th Anniversary of Israel “Reefa” Hernandez’s murder (Photo credit Charles H.F. Davis III)

'Defunding the Police' Explained →

June 16, 2020

As protests across the country continue, local and national calls-to-action have been issued for defunding, disarming, and wide-spread divestment from the institution of policing. In response, police departments are making claims that such demands, if implemented, would impede law enforcement’s ability to effectively intervene and properly investigate alleged crimes.

University of Pennsylvania Police Department officer halts traffic during 2015 protest in West Philadelphia (Photo credit Charles H.F. Davis III)

More Colleges Should Divest From the Institution of Policing →

June 02, 2020

Dec 2, 2021

Racialized Policymaking in Higher Education

Current popular policymaking theories, however, are inadequate to understand this phenomenon, as they under-theorize the role of racialized power in policymaking – e.g., the racialized network of policy elites and their core beliefs. In this chapter, we endeavored to bring together existing theory, research, and contemporary policymaking examples to offer a framework of racialized policymaking that explicitly describes the lack of progress for racial equity in higher education.