Dodge College faculty members write letter about arming Public Safety
In an April 21 letter to the faculty senate, Dodge College of Film and Media Arts professors wrote that Public Safety’s use of “high-speed chase vehicles” is “symptomatic of a creeping militarization of policing,” although Chief of Public Safety Randy Burba said that Public Safety’s cars, which are Hyundai Santa Fes, are not intended for high-speed chases.
Dodge College of Film and Media Arts professors wrote a letter to the faculty senate April 21 expressing their concerns about arming Public Safety officers with guns, but there Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Harold Hewitt said that there is no plan to do so.
Chief of Public Safety Randy Burba made a presentation to the faculty senate March 17 that discussed the pros and cons of giving Public Safety officers guns because of an “upward trend in school violence and active shooter incidents,” Burba told The Panther April 5.
“(Burba) and the Public Safety department report to me,” Hewitt said. “So what Burba said in the PowerPoint, and also to the senate, is that if the university was going to undertake consideration of arming the Public Safety department, that would be an institutional decision, not a departmental decision. And I am the institution.”
Hewitt said that there is “no chance of a proposal emerging anytime in the near future,” but that, if a proposal were to be drafted, it would need to be reviewed by President Daniele Struppa and the Board of Trustees.
In the letter, Dodge College faculty discussed concerns about providing Public Safety with weapons.
“Arming Public Safety is symptomatic of a creeping militarization of policing that is a national trend and already a noticeable trend here with Chapman’s Public Safety, evidenced by tactical uniforms and high-speed chase vehicles,” the letter said.
Burba said that the Public Safety uniforms, which include pants that have multiple pockets, are not meant to look militaristic. Public Safety officers wear these types of uniforms because the majority of the calls they receive are requests for medical aid, Burba said, and the pockets allow them to carry medical tools.
“(The statement in the letter about high-speed chase vehicles) is not true,” Burba said. “We have Hyundai Santa Fes. I mean, I don’t know how that white Hyundai Santa Fe qualifies as a high-speed chase vehicle.”
Burba said that, for him, arming Public Safety is not about needing a gun all the time, but about having one when it’s necessary. He said that officers don’t abuse the tools they have now, such as batons and pepper spray, so there is no reason to believe that they would do so if armed with guns.
“If your mentality is to abuse your authority, then you’re going to abuse it with whatever you have,” Burba said. “If your mentality is to assault people, you’re not going to be hired in this job. You’re not going to pass the background.”
A potential proposal to arm Public Safety would be a “complicated concept,” Hewitt said, and would also include input from student government, any student groups that have an interest in the issue, community members and the Orange Police Department.
“It could be a very broad and very lengthy process,” Hewitt said. “It’s not like everybody straps on their guns and marches around with guns on.”
Right now, Public Safety officers are prohibited from carrying guns in a school zone under the Gun-Free Schools Act of 1995 because they are not sworn law enforcement officers.
In order to become sworn officers, Burba said, Public Safety officers would need to complete training through the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services. They can also become sworn officers as a result of a new California bill that allows security officers who work for universities to become deputized by a local police department.
Hewitt cited the concerns of minority students as one of the reasons that the university is not considering arming Public Safety.
Jae Staten, a member of the Black Student Union, wrote an open letter published in The Panther to “formally and emphatically disapprove” of Burba’s March 17 presentation.
“Every student has the right to feel safe at Chapman University, and yet, oftentimes students of color, queer and transgender students, and other marginalized identities do not feel safe on this campus,” Staten wrote.
Hewitt said that these concerns are “understandable” and “totally expected.”
“There are all kinds of reasons why people have deep fear and grave concern about anyone who is armed,” Hewitt said. “It would take a lot to ignore people who have these concerns in order to get to the point where we conclude that it’s time to arm everybody.”