At a City Council meeting Monday, students from Northeastern University and members of the Boston community gathered to discuss recent policy changes regarding the university’s police department training with semi-automatic weapons.
Councilor Josh Zakim began by expressing how discouraged he was that Northeastern did not send anyone to the meeting.
“I am disappointed that amongst the many people here in the chamber today is not any representative from Northeastern University, their police department or their administration,” Zakim said. “I think it’s a very disappointing statement on how seriously they take community input in making large decisions, not just from the residents of Mission Hill or Roxbury and the surrounding neighborhoods, but from their students and other members of the community.”
The issue itself stems back to October 2015, according to a Northeastern timeline released Jan. 26, when Ruben Galindo, deputy police chief for the university, met with Boston Police Department Captain Patrick Crossen. During the meeting, BPD was briefed on the planned implementation of the tactical weapons and toured NUPD’s training facilities, the timeline said.
Miscommunication arose when BPD Commissioner William Evans appeared on WGBH radio Dec. 8 to express concerns regarding the necessity of the tactical program, according to the timeline. Similar concerns were echoed at Monday’s City Council hearing, according to BPD spokesperson Officer Rachel McGuire.
“Our primary concern is public safety and the safety of the students,” McGuire said. “A lot of students and representatives of students spoke at the City Council hearing, and they voiced their opinions that they opposed to NU police carrying the rifles.”
NU released a letter Feb. 25 addressed to City Councilors in anticipation of Monday’s hearing, deeming the meeting “unnecessary” to attend.
“Councilors Josh Zakim and Tito Jackson have called for this public hearing based on claims that Northeastern decided to increase the tactical capabilities of its Incident Containment Team ‘without the collaboration and approval of BPD’ and made ‘no effort to consult or involve’ the local community. These statements are not accurate,” the letter stated.
The letter explained that the increased tactical equipment through the Incident Containment Team would only be deployed in the event of an active shooter threat on campus.
“While Northeastern’s strong partnership with the Boston Police Department and other local agencies is integral to the safety of our campus, Northeastern University police officers are charged with the explicit responsibility of protecting the university’s 77-acre campus, and its student and employees,” the letter stated.
McGuire said BPD wishes there was more communication surrounding the use of semi-automatic rifles on campuses and NU’s particular approach to the security measure.
“The Boston Police Department always takes into consideration the opinions and the concerns of the community, and we would have liked for Northeastern to be a little bit more forthcoming and communicated better with us regarding any policy changes that they would like to propose,” McGuire said. “We would just like to be consulted, and we would have liked to have had more communication during the process.”
McGuire said that “currently, the university police departments in the area do not carry the rifles,” but several area schools do carry the semi-automatic rifles, including Boston University.
Several Boston residents were hesitant about having university police departments carry semi-automatic rifles.
Lydia Jackson, 31, of Fenway, said Boston is a peculiar place for an issue like this to arise.
“This is something you expect from schools in the South, but it’s so weird that it’s coming from a school around here,” she said. “It’s just not what you expect.”
Sarah Placke, 33, of Back Bay, said it’s scary for university police departments to have access to semi-automatic rifles in the city.
“It’s just scary to think that there are semi-automatics anywhere near a college campus, especially one in a city,” she said. “It’s just really alarming.”
Doni Carter, 37, of the South End, said Northeastern has the right to arm its police forces because it’s a private institution.
“I guess they can do it if they’re private,” she said. “It’s kind of scary, but I wonder what exactly the rules are about whether or not they can decide that.”
