American University is continuing to deliberate whether to arm the AU Police Department and is expected to release a decision in early 2025, according to Assistant Vice President of University Police Service Management and Transportation Progress Phillip Morse, who spoke with student media publications on Monday morning.
Morse and Elizabeth Deal, assistant vice president and deputy communications officer, both emphasized that a decision has not been made yet and that administration is still considering input from the community.
“We wanted to make sure we did this the right way,” Morse said.
The administration and the Security Review Working Group are currently in the “feasibility assessment phase” Morse said. They are considering the legality and the potential cost of arming AUPD, along with D.C.’s gun licensing laws.
The briefing came less than two weeks after a protest sponsored by March For Our Lives AU, where students condemned any potential arming of AUPD. The protest is in tandem with a petition circulating campus to prevent arming AUPD, an action which a majority of students opposed in the recent Student Government elections.
In an effort to listen to these concerns, the University held nine community forums, where students and faculty spoke with others who shared their same opinions on the issue.
“We wanted the discussion to be as inclusive of as many voices as we could,” Morse said.
Deal also said the working group, which is made up of students and faculty, is considering multiple factors in its research and public outreach.
“There are a number of ways we are asking our community to participate in this process,” Deal said.
The University released a Security Review Survey to “gauge the sentiment of the AU community regarding the various options,” according to an email on Oct. 31 from Chief Financial Officer, Vice President and Treasurer Bronté Burleigh-Jones. Burleigh-Jones also serves as chair of the working group.
The survey will remain open until Nov. 12, and will be included in the final assessment report the University releases next semester, according to an Oct. 30 email from Burleigh-Jones.
These options include maintaining the status quo of unarmed officers, equipping officers with less-than-lethal weapons such as batons, distributing firearms to police vehicles and, most controversially among students, arming all AUPD officers.
Morse said that if the University does decide to arm AUPD, he wants officers to receive increased training in addition to their minimum training published under Title VI of AUPD’s regulations, which are based on the Metropolitan Police Department’s code. This training will include the logistics of carrying firearms and their usage and how officers can respond to gun violence.
This training builds upon the training of de-escalation tactics for officers, which have become increasingly discussed amidst campus-wide protests. In mid-October, a vigil held by AU’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine was met with a police presence, and officers held zip ties as administration told students to leave the quad and move the vigil elsewhere.
AUPD is not currently required to report any use of force in an incident to the University community, and instead forwards reports directly to the Metropolitan Police Department, according to Morse.
Morse did not directly respond as to whether AUPD would be armed when called to protests, and instead referred back to the four options the working group is continuing to consider.
“The highest priority is always the safety of the community,” Morse said.
This article was edited by Olivia Wood, Tyler Davis and Abigail Turner. Copy editing done by Luna Jinks, Sabine Kanter-Huchting and Ariana Kavoossi.
