Fatal shooting at University of Cincinnati raises question about campus cops

The Chronicle of Higher Education this week reports on the recent University of Cincinnati case of a white campus police officer indicted for the murder of a black motorist.

The case, the Chronicle report says, “highlights the tensions of being an ambitious, growing university in an economically depressed area. It also raises the point that the rules for college cops patrolling off campus vary from institution to institution.”

The Chronicle reports that about 86 percent of all four-year colleges and universities allow their campus police to patrol off campus, according to a U.S. Justice Department study and 75 percent of campus police were allowed to carry weapons in 2011-2012 that federal report states.

“Yet campus police officers are often perceived as glorified security guards, with a kind of “mall cop” stigma,” The Chronicle article says. “People, even other law-enforcement authorities, often believe that the campus forces are insufficiently prepared to handle intense police work,”

This story was originally published August 3, 2015 at 4:43 PM with the headline "Fatal shooting at University of Cincinnati raises question about campus cops."