Whereas in the E.U., universities
do not have their own private police departments because the state governments
hold the police power, the situation in the U.S. has devolved from such
democratic accountability such that even small colleges (and even hospitals!)
typically have their own “police departments.” This presents the unwitting American
public with a potentially problem of conflict of interest: in disputes between
a college or university administration, which is not democratically elected,
and stakeholders, including students and the general public, the organizational
police forces take orders from one side. This is especially problematic in
cases, such as at Yale, in which the organizational police employees patrol off
campus—off the university’s own “territory”—and arrest people who are
unaffiliated with Yale and have not even been on the campus. Such a usurpation of
the prerogative of the city of New Haven comes with the loss of democratic accountability.
The full essay is at "On University 'Police Departments'."
