George Washington University's Plan to Arm Campus Police Raises Concerns of Racial Violence

The relationship between students at George Washington University and campus police has not always been harmonious. In early 2020, a student accused campus law enforcement of pushing them down the stairs at the university president's on-campus residence, where the student was protesting. Months later, the Black Student Union publicly demanded that the George Washington University Police Department (GWPD) enforce a zero-tolerance policy for officers exhibiting racially biased behavior. The union stated at the time that they were "tired of every Black student being able to recall an unpleasant or frightening encounter with GWPD."

Now, a proposal to arm some campus officers with guns could further strain relations between students and the police. Interim university president Mark Wrighton told the campus community last month that the Board of Trustees had directed the administration to develop a plan. Wrighton said that while officials were "not aware of any heightened threat facing the university," they were concerned about recent shootings at Michigan State University, the University of Virginia, and an elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee.

Students and subsequently faculty members have opposed the prospect, arguing that arming campus officers—who they say primarily handle low-level incidents like intoxicated minors—would not enhance campus safety.

The debate over whether to arm university police is not limited to George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Across the country, students and university administrations have been locked in fierce battles over the size and expansion of authority of campus police forces.

GWU administrators say they are closely monitoring student and employee input.

"The university values the perspectives of all stakeholders," GWU spokesperson Julia Metjian said in an emailed statement. "We have initiated a process to gather community input on the implementation of a reimagined public safety plan. Members of our community are expressing support, concerns, and implementation suggestions in various ways. We will continue to provide additional opportunities for engagement as the implementation plan progresses."

What happened at GWU?

Days after the interim president announced the Board of Trustees' intentions, more than 100 student organizers and other protesters against the plan marched across the campus of the private, nonprofit university and gathered outside Wrighton's residence, which is just one block from the White House.

Leaders from student groups such as GW Black Defiance spoke, referencing police shootings on or near campus. More than 20 student groups signed a statement demanding that officials reverse the decision.

Even students not involved in the demonstrations disapprove of arming security personnel. Freshman Charlotte Davie, speaking with a reporter on campus Thursday, questioned the necessity of arming campus officers when the D.C. Metropolitan Police is available. Davie said administrators seem not to be listening to student concerns, noting that they claim to accept campus feedback while planning to move forward with the proposal.

Another freshman, Jonny Thibodeau, said the plan does not seem financially prudent. "Maybe it will be necessary at some point in the future, but now is not the time," Thibodeau said.

The university has not disclosed the cost of equipping officers. Metjian did not respond to questions about the cost or how much GWU spends annually on public safety. Few details of the plan have been released, though according to the student newspaper The GW Hatchet, the university plans to equip 20 of its approximately 50 officers with 9mm handguns.

Daniel Turner, who graduated from GWU last year and now works for a campus ministry organization, said that given the strong student opposition, moving forward with the plan is not worth it. Turner, who had unpleasant experiences with campus police as a student, said officers are not always good at interacting with students. He recalled an incident where his professor had reserved a library room for the class, but a student organization also tried to book the same space. When the two sides could not resolve the issue, the student organization called the police, who then reprimanded his professor.

Faculty members have also strongly opposed armed law enforcement. More than 200 faculty members signed a statement accusing the administration of rushing the plan and disregarding shared governance principles in the process. The statement said this "makes community members feel that university leadership and the Board of Trustees lack respect for the views or judgment of faculty and students. The decision is also questionable given the brief remaining tenure of an outgoing interim president and the lack of transparency regarding financial costs."

Faculty members noted that private, nonprofit universities in the capital—Georgetown, American, Trinity Washington, and Gallaudet—do not arm their officers. However, Howard University, a prominent private historically Black university in the area, does have an armed law enforcement force, as does the public University of the District of Columbia.

GWU is one of the most prominent universities in Washington, D.C., enrolling more than 26,000 undergraduate and graduate students, and has two additional campuses in Northern Virginia and northwest Washington, D.C. "This will inevitably change the atmosphere of our campus," GWU faculty said in the statement. "This is not the student experience we should be pursuing at this university."

Meanwhile, the administration argues that its officers know the campus geography best and are crucial for responding to emergencies, "especially during times when local partner agencies are handling a high volume of service requests elsewhere in the District," Wrighton said. "When it comes to weapons, time is of the essence."

Policing controversy

Student distrust of campus policing can be deeply rooted, as these issues often involve concerns about racial bias. Cases of fatal police shootings involving universities date back decades. In 1970, Jackson State College in Mississippi, an HBCU, made national headlines when city and state police responding to protests against racial injustice shot and killed two students and wounded more than a dozen others. This occurred just days after National Guardsmen killed four students during anti-Vietnam War protests at Kent State University in Ohio.

Both incidents had a profound impact on the United States because they occurred at the height of political and social tensions surrounding the war and the civil rights movement, and they reflected growing public disillusionment with government authority. More recently, in 2015, a University of Cincinnati officer shot and killed an unarmed Black man, Samuel DuBose, during a traffic stop, sparking national outrage.

At Johns Hopkins University, another prominent private nonprofit institution in downtown Baltimore, a years-long dispute over campus policing continues. Since 2018, university leadership has lobbied lawmakers to authorize the creation of a private police force in response to a surge in local crime. Although the legislature approved it, in a city known for the 2015 killing of Freddie Gray—a Black man who suffered a spinal injury in Baltimore police custody, whose death sparked city riots and ultimately led to a detailed federal court order aimed at curbing further biased policing—adding police resources has been difficult to implement.

Johns Hopkins students have also criticized campus security personnel, accusing some of sharing racist posts online. Student activists even occupied an administrative building for over a month in 2019, but this did not stop the plan. What truly paused the plan for two years was the death of another Black man, George Floyd, in 2020. Floyd's murder by Minneapolis police sparked a racial reckoning, prompting institutions like universities to seriously examine potential racist structures and attempt to repair them.

However, in the nearly three years since Floyd's killing, other matters have taken priority in the American public consciousness, said Charles Davis III, an education professor at the University of Michigan who studies racism and oppression. Diversity initiatives that emerged in the corporate world after Floyd's death have begun to fade. In higher education, universities that three years ago divested from police powers or cut ties with police have begun to reintegrate them.

Portland State University disarmed its security personnel in 2020, partly because two years earlier, a campus officer shot and killed a Black man just outside the boundaries of the public institution. But last month, Portland State President Stephen Percy said officers would be re-armed, citing weapons flowing into campus and surrounding areas and "limited assistance" from the Portland Police Bureau. The University of Minnesota distanced itself from Minneapolis police after an officer murdered Floyd in 2020. The university stopped relying on off-duty Minneapolis officers for security and special services, such as K-9 bomb units, at large events like concerts or sporting events. However, last year, outgoing president Joan Gabel said the university would begin phasing back in the use of Minneapolis police at these large events.

The day-to-day relationship between the University of Minnesota Police Department (UMPD) and Minneapolis police never changed, university spokesperson Jake Ricker said in an email Thursday. "UMPD and MPD continue (and will continue) to communicate on day-to-day public safety work and collaborate in communities near our Twin Cities campus," Ricker said.

Research does not support arming officers

Little research exists on whether arming police officers reduces gun violence on university campuses. However, multiple studies have shown that doing so in K-12 schools has not reduced mass shootings—Davis said the results of such research can be extrapolated to universities. GWU faculty urging the administration to abandon the plan cited this research in their messaging. They pointed to a 2021 study published in the peer-reviewed journal JAMA Network Open that examined K-12 mass shootings from 1980 to 2019 and found "no association between the presence of armed officers and deterrence of violence in these cases."

Nevertheless, many universities still rely on armed security. A 2015 report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (the most recent data available) found that during the 2011-12 academic year, 75% of four-year universities enrolling 2,500 or more students armed their law enforcement departments. This is higher than the bureau's previous study, which found that 68% of such institutions used armed security in 2004-05.

Universities have also faced criticism for participating in the U.S. Department of Defense's 1033 program, authorized by Congress in the 1990s, which allows the federal government to transfer military resources—including advanced weapons—to local law enforcement, including university campuses. Why do universities still pursue armed security? According to Davis, they may want to present themselves in a certain way. He noted that when prospective students and families tour campuses, tour guides often boast about the number of campus police and other safety measures. "We think of police as serving law and order and protecting white institutions," Davis said. "This is being communicated to certain groups, such as potential donor groups."

Davis urges institutions to reconsider their budget priorities. He said universities that invest funds in police could redirect those resources toward mental health counseling or food pantries, which would improve the campus environment and potentially eliminate the need for more law enforcement. "That money would create safer conditions, more effectively than police," Davis said.