Responding to the greatest challenge of our time
In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, there was an initial spike in respect granted those in law enforcement and a spirit of patriotism and even heroism that was afforded first responders and law enforcement professionals on the front lines. The 9/11 Commission report called for a unity of effort in five areas, one of which has a direct impact on local law enforcement: Strengthening the FBI and homeland security defenders. Preventing and responding to terrorism is the challenge of our time and requires active engagement from all sectors of law and enforcement, including campus police.
More recently, however, there has been significant erosion in the perception of law enforcement in general that complicates the challenges confronting law enforcement leaders on today’s college campuses. Tensions have ratcheted up over the past three years, in particular, for those in law enforcement serving on our nation’s college campuses. In the last few years alone, we have witnessed campus activism and in some cases some civil unrest. Beginning with the Occupy Movement in 2011 on through demonstrations at the University of Missouri, American University and Princeton to name a few, coupled student solidarity with the black community related to use of force and bias policing. The evolution of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2013, protests stemming from the Ferguson shooting of Michael Brown and death Eric Garner at the hands of the NYPD 2014, have impacted our campuses and spawned a new era in campus protests and activism. The civil unrest that has erupted over these last few years stemming from dissatisfaction with the police presents an opportunity to strengthen campus engagement and collaboration — all focused on achieving a unity of effort that will enhance our nation’s security.
This is especially true when considering the leadership challenges that contemporary campus law enforcement professionals must face when assigning an officer to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF). A tremendous deficiency is that there simply is no resource — no playbook or guide — for campus police leaders to reference when determining the appropriateness and protocols for assigning such an officer. Police chiefs on college campuses across the United States face a significant knowledge gap in the absence of clear guidance. This knowledge gap is exacerbated by the fact that public sentiment as well as that of campus administration, college trustees, parents, students, and even the community-at-large is unclear and not cohesive.
Respect for law enforcement is wavering and campus policies are woefully lacking with respect to even recognizing the need for incorporating appropriate positioning. As the pendulum has swung in an opposite direction from where it was just 15 years ago in the immediate post-9/11 era, there has evinced a stance that law enforcement professionals are stifling freedom of speech and expression aggravated further by heightened racial sensitivities with the Black Lives Matter movement harkening back to campus tensions some 40 years ago reminiscent of the Black Panther movement. With law enforcement professionals falling under ever-increasing scrutiny, reviews by the Department of Justice, and — for campus police — questions from even their own university administrators and others, the development of best practices addressing the sometimes controversial matter of assigning a campus police officer to the FBI-JTTF is long overdue.
It has become increasingly clear that campuses nationwide are being recognized as potential breeding grounds for discontent, malcontent, and homegrown/lone-wolf terrorism — a veritable petri dish from which, unfortunately threats to homeland security have escalated in recent years. For instance, in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, campus police leaders learned that a radicalized, operationally ready college student committed to terrorism living on campus in the Northeast was no longer an imagined scenario; it was a reality. Although the Boston Marathon bombing did not occur on a college campus, one of the perpetrators was a UMASS Dartmouth student who returned to the campus dormitory where he lived with other students following the attack. The Boston Marathon bombing was a successful terrorist event on American soil and involved a foreign student, living on a college campus in America. In 2015, the son of a Boston police captain plotted to detonate pressure-cooker bombs at an unidentified university in a terrorist act aimed at supporting the Islamic State group. A September 2015 Inspire Magazine article called for the killing of famous American economists as a way to cripple the West’s economy. Professor Robert Schiller, a prominent economist and winner of a Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, was named for targeting by assassins by Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsulas (AQAP). AQAP’s transition from targeting uniformed police, military, and structural symbols of American wealth, such as the World Trade Center, to targeting nationally renowned economists suggested a shift on which homeland security defenders must focus. Campus police leaders are taking note.
WeSee it is imperative that a comprehensive, solutions-focused approach which unifies efforts on college campuses and aligns through strategic partnerships with the FBI-JTTF occur on a more concerted and holistic basis — not just on an individual campus-by-campus basis throughout the country.
