If someone holds up a bank on campus and it is reported to the Boston University Police Department, the campus police pass the investigation on to the Boston Bank Robbery Task Force, according to BUPD. But if a student is sexually assaulted in that same on-campus bank, BUPD handles the investigation internally.
Such is the world of campus police departments, where the laws aren’t always clear and the jurisdiction isn’t always obvious. BUPD is a genuine public police force and not a private security agency, but as a group of “special officers” &- policemen who work at schools or hospitals &- the power of BUPD is limited when compared to the city’s police force.
Officers who work for BUPD can make arrests of anyone in Suffolk or Norfolk County, carry firearms and investigate crimes.
However, BUPD does have limitations not found in the Boston Police Department. BUPD does not have the ability to arrest people for traffic violations under most circumstances, although exceptions are made when a driver has the potential to put others in harm’s way.
Even if a crime occurs on campus, BUPD does not necessarily investigate it. For instance, all homicides are reported to the BPD Homicide Unit, according to BUPD Sgt. Jack St. Hilaire. And, for the most part, BUPD only works on crimes that occur on BU’s Charles River and Medical campuses.
“If someone came forward and said a sexual assault occurred in Dorchester, we would turn it over to Suffolk County,” St. Hilaire said.
What makes BU more difficult to patrol than most universities is, as St. Hilaire argues, “there really is no campus per se.”
“This is an urban school,” said BPD spokesman Eddy Chrispin, explaining the occasional overlap of BUPD and BPD jurisdiction. “Obviously BU isn’t enclosed. Some of the campus buildings do fall on Boston streets, so we do patrol some parts of the campus.”
However, for the most part there isn’t any gray area in jurisdiction, Chrispin said.
Confusion can also arise over BUPD’s obligations for disclosure.
Though BUPD is a public police force, it is not subject to some state public record laws, a precedent that was set in 2003 when The Harvard Crimson, Harvard University’s student-run newspaper, tried unsuccessfully to sue their campus police for detailed police reports. Harvard, like BU, keeps a police log with a brief description of daily incidents.
“It doesn’t mean we don’t disclose anything,” St. Hilaire said, adding that police logs are publicly available at the BUPD station on Harry Agganis Way.
BU also discloses the amount of certain reported crimes on campus as a part of the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act.
Ryan Menezes, a blogger for the BU American Civil Liberties Union, said the advocacy organization takes a mixed view of BUPD’s jurisdiction over BU’s campus.
“I suppose we’d like to widen BUPD’s jurisdiction if it means protecting kids from the BPD,” Menezes said. “We want to increase BU’s power to leniently handle minor offenses in-house, for instance drug and alcohol violations. But that doesn’t excuse overprotecting the campus with excess internal force.”
However, Menezes also expressed concern over the possibility of a campus police force with too much power.
“Campus police also may not respect individual rights the way city police legally have to because BU, as disciplinary policies clearly show, values security over liberty,” he said.
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