Campus police


Campus police or university police in the United States, Canada and United Kingdom are often sworn police or peace officers employed by a college or university to protect that private property of the campus and surrounding areas and the people who live, work, and visit it.

Canada

Campus police in Canada are sworn in as peace officers – giving them full police powers on their respective campuses to enforce the Criminal Code, as well as local bylaws. Peace officers in Canada do not typically carry firearms like their police counterparts, so campus officers only carry a baton, pepper spray, handcuffs and a radio. Protective vests, similar to those of police, are worn. Noteable examples of campus peace officer services include the University of Toronto Campus Police, UBC Campus Security and the University of Alberta Protective Services.
In Ontario, the term of 'campus police' is prohibited under Bill 68 of the Community Safety and Policing Act, 2019. If anyone other than a police service, including a peace officer service, wishes to address themselves as 'police', they must seek exemption from the province.

United States

In the 2004-05 school year, 87% of college campuses had sworn officers with the power to arrest, and 90% of these departments were armed.
92% of campus police departments are responsible for handling their own dispatching, which means that they are completely self-sufficient agencies. They do not rely on the city police around them to take on their responsibilities.
Some secondary public school districts maintain their own police, such as the Los Angeles School Police Department, the Miami-Dade County Public Schools Police Department and the New York City Police Department School Safety Division.

United Kingdom

With the exception of the University of Cambridge, universities in the United Kingdom do not have police forces. The Universities Act 1825 gives both the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge the ability to appoint police constables. Both Universities formerly maintained police forces, although Oxford disbanded the Oxford University Police in 2003. Cambridge retain the Cambridge University Constabulary with full police powers, although these are rarely used in practice.