JOR 221 Project 6
Multi-Media Reporting
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Rhody Get Your Gun
By Victoria Seligman
On April 14th URI's president Dr. David Dooley announced his decision to begin the process of equipping campus police officers with firearms.
URI was the only public university in the country where campus police didn't carry firearms.
This issue has been discussed in depth since April of last year when campus police responded to the threat of a gunman in the Chafee Social Science Center. Campus police arrived on site but were unable to enter the building because they were not properly equipped. Although the incident was a false alarm, it raised concern about the preparedness of campus police officers.
According to a campus-wide student poll, of the 2,300 responses, 66 percent were in favor of arming campus police. The faculty union however, was against it.
I spoke with Dr.Lynn Derbyshire, director of the honors program, who has been an active voice in keeping the campus gun free. She says the decision has been made and she supports the university, but remains concerned about the dangers of hidden bias in regards to gun violence.
“Police officers are no more and no less likely to suffer from hidden bias then the rest of us, but people with guns with hidden bias are more dangerous than people without guns who have hidden bias.”
Dr. Derbyshire also discussed the likelihood of gun violence in national statistics.
“Any given campus will have one murder about every 265 years, it feels like we’re
trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist.”
Derbyshire says she hopes the decision will be made that guns will not be routinely carried but will be available in case of a crisis.
I also spoke with University Police Lieutenant, Michael Donohue, who has been asking to arm campus police for the past 24 years.
“The community will be getting a full range of services now.”
Lt. Donohue said that although the Chafee incident was a large factor in making the decision, campus police have dealt with other situations where being armed is necessary, such as gang members on campus, robberies, drug dealers, and car stops.
“Chafee just put it out in the forefront, that if someone screams this guy has a gun, we get there within 40 seconds but we become victims just like you.”
Although he says it is an unfortunate necessity, he believes the community will be safer with armed officers.
Between training and equipment the university will spend $150,000 initially and and an additional $23,000 annually.
Campus police will undergo background checks, firearms training and diversity training before they are armed. Donohue expects that campus police will be armed by January, the Spring semester of 2015.
By Victoria Seligman