The Connecticut Board of Regents has approved the process to allow armed police at community colleges in Connecticut.
The Board of Regents unanimously approved the formal process to allow community colleges to train and authorize their security officers to carry a gun and receive specialized training.
Any community college interested in establishing an armed police force will have to submit a comprehensive plan to the president of Connecticut State Colleges and Universities that includes a campus security profile and officer requirements, as well as a use of force policy.
“Providing community colleges the option to have special police forces on campus is driven by the desire consistently expressed by students, faculty and staff to feel safe. It is part of our larger approach including reviewing all of our support services and physical infrastructure to ensure we’re doing everything we can to protect the learning environment on all of our campuses,” CSCU President Mark Ojakian said in a statement.
The approval today comes nearly a year after the Board of Regents approved a resolution in December to have armed officers on campus.
Then the General Assembly took up the bill to allow special police forces to patrol the state’s 12 community college campuses and passed the legislation in July.
“Across the country this is happening. We do have issues on campuses often, that even though an armed police force may not avoid them, it certainly would be a deterrent to such activity on campuses,”
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Merle Harris, chair of Student and Academic Affairs Committee, said.
Once a college has submitted its plan, the president will have to approve it.
