Johns Hopkins University held a brief press conference Thursday afternoon ahead of a town hall meeting, to defend its position to establish an armed private police force to guard the campus. The town hall meeting is to allow members of the public to offer feedback on a draft memorandum of understanding between Johns Hopkins and the Baltimore Police Department. The Thursday night meeting is the second of three the school plans to host.
Johns Hopkins University’s vice president for public safety Branville Bard said that while the school already has campus security guards, the school is missing a “vital component” to respond to violence on campus grounds.
“Violence impacts us all too frequently and everybody deserves to feel safe,” Bard said.
The new private police department would augment Baltimore Police Department ranks and doesn’t plan to fill in when the city needs help, he said.
“It’s about us having dedicated resources, not to fill in where the city can’t. We realize we’ll experience benefits to having our own police department,” he said.
In 2020, Minnesota man George Floyd died in police custody. It sparked unrest, peaceful protests and even riots which inspired Johns Hopkins to put its plans for a private police department on hold for two years.
During a community feedback town hall on John Hopkins’ campus last week, protestors stormed the stage flying banners and chanting anti-police slogans.
Bard, the leader of the Johns Hopkins police department, said that as a career law enforcement officer he learned a long time ago that marginalized communities suffer from police misconduct. But he argued, those same communities suffer disproportionately from crime and violence if police are not on patrol.
“The answer can’t be to remove the police,” he said. “The answer has to be to remove improper behavior from policing and that’s what our aim here is at Hopkins.”
At the school’s East Baltimore campus, Bard said the community is affected routinely by assaults, robberies and even murders.
“I have individuals who come here to work, who are afraid to come from the parking garage into the building,” he said. “Everybody deserves to feel safe. Crime impacts in ways we truly can’t measure. We don’t know how many people don’t come here for treatment, or to work or to study because of violence, and it’s our responsibility to do all within our power to prevent that from happening.”
The draft memorandum of agreement is between the school and the Baltimore Police Department. That means that the Baltimore City Council will have an opportunity to review it, but won’t be voting on it. If Police Commissioner Michael Harrison signs off on the deal, the school can begin formulating policies and procedures to establish the agency.
The university’s goal is to have its private police department established by next fall.
