Hopkins police force to get 20 to 30 new officers this year but not exceed 100
The Johns Hopkins Police Department, which has received pushback from students, community members and local leaders, will add 20 to 30 new officers over the remainder of the year, according to a university public safety spokesperson.
The additional hires are part of the long-term plan to make incremental additions to the staff under Branville Bard Jr., who was named the first chief of the university's police department in 2023, in addition to being vice president for public safety.
The department will not exceed 100 officers under that strategy. The department currently consists of 12 sworn officers and one community engagement adviser.
'During my time at Hopkins I have met with over 100 community and stakeholder groups and I commit to continue our work with the community to shape the JHPD as a model, community-oriented, transparent, and constitutional public safety organization,' Bard said in a statement. 'We have implemented national guidance on best practices and model policies from criminal justice reform efforts, social science research centers, and civil rights organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union.'
The department has jurisdiction to patrol the Homewood academic campus, the medical campus in East Baltimore and the Peabody Institute conservatory in Mount Vernon. Officers can also operate in certain areas of public space that border the campus.
The police force has been the subject of community and student protests before it was even launched. Some critics allege the police force was formed to quiet dissent on campus and could potentially harm students.
In 2019, seven people were arrested during a monthlong sit-in against the creation of the department. In 2022, protesters disrupted a pair of town halls about the department.
The annual meeting of the department's accountability board in November was moved from in-person to online, limiting potential protests. The board consists of five community members unaffiliated with the university and 10 students, faculty and staff, including at least one member of the school's Black faculty and staff association.
The university said it's taken steps to address concerns.
'It is important to note that the JHPD is one small part of our Public Safety ecosystem,' Bard said. 'Importantly, we are also continuing the implementation of our public safety initiatives, including the Innovation Fund for Community Safety and the Behavioral Health Crisis Response Team.'
The Johns Hopkins University Behavioral Health Crisis Support Team was created to pair mental health clinicians with public safety officers to help people experiencing behavioral health crises. Under this strategy, the clinician and a public safety officer travel together to calls with a behavioral health component.
The community safety innovation fund intends to award up to $6 million over four years to community safety organizations such as B-360, which utilizes dirt bike culture to combat poverty; I AM MENtality, which provides leadership development training, mentorship and mental health counseling; and WombWork Productions, which helps communities through performing arts.
Last summer, the JHPD finalized policies to govern how the force will operate on the three campuses. The 88 policies include use-of-force procedures, arrests and interactions with the community.
The policies were written with themes of racial justice, procedural justice, de-escalation and harm reduction.
The arrest policy, for example, advises officers of alternatives to arrests, such as warnings and referrals for criminal and civil violations. Arrests are made only when it is 'least intrusive and most appropriate,' the policy says.
Supervisors must approve actions beyond a warning, except for felony offenses.
In April, the Maryland Appellate Court agreed with a lower court decision to dismiss a lawsuit from three Baltimore residents that challenged the university's police department. Judge Douglas Nazarian wrote in an opinion that the plaintiffs did not show they were aggrieved in a different way than the public, the facts of the case haven't matured into an existing controversy, and the suit failed to state a claim.
'These people are being prepared to take over Baltimore Police Department's patrol duties in areas of the city that Johns Hopkins still refuses to identify,' said Joan Floyd, one of the plaintiffs in the suit, in a statement to The Baltimore Sun.
Baltimore City Councilor Odette Ramos also opposes the private police force. She said there are significant problems with the plan, including confusion on the boundaries and jurisdiction with the Baltimore Police Department, as well as what she calls the flawed policies that officers will be following.
'JHU has the opportunity to invest in transformational work in our city to address the root causes of crime, but instead chooses to invest in arming itself inside and outside of the campus,' Ramos said in a statement to The Sun. 'Officers that will not have the same training as our Baltimore Police officers with access to AR15s in their cars possibly profiling individuals in our diverse neighborhoods is not what I call safety at all.'
Have a news tip? Contact Todd Karpovich at tkarpovich@baltsun.com or on X as @ToddKarpovich.
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