CAMPUS POLICE PARTICIPATION IN JOINT TERRORISM TASK FORCES

Abstract

The strategy a campus police leader and university administration adopt in a post-9/11 world must consider the context of campus attacks and foiled plots over the past 12 years: the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, the 2014 University of California Santa Barbara attack killing six, and, tangentially, the 2015 arrest by Boston Police of a Boston Police captain’s son for plotting an Islamic State-inspired attack against a college campus. The nexus among the three attacks is that the campus and campus community were the direct targets of the attacks. Whether it be the threat of an individual’s radicalization or an untreated mental illness, American college campuses are today and shall foreseeably remain locations challenged by the potential for violence. This issue can be examined internally through threat assessment teams or campus partnerships with key stakeholders and externally through community policing partnerships, training, and networking. Given the increasing complexity and diverse social fabric of colleges and universities, campus police leaders must understand and prepare for a wide range of threats in a post-9/11 and politically polarized era.