Columbia University adds 36 new campus patrol officers with powers of arrest

New York: The 36 new special patrol officers announced last month by Columbia University were appointed by the New York Police Department and will be subject to the orders of the police commissioner, a Columbia spokesperson confirmed this week.

Columbia's leaders applied to the city's police commissioner for peace officers last year after they had twice called in NYPD to arrest pro-Palestinian student protesters who had set up an unauthorized tent encampment on a campus lawn last spring and barricaded themselves inside an academic building.

Columbia spokesperson Samantha Slater said the new officers had gone through the NYPD's application process under New York state's Peace Officers law, which allows individuals and corporations to apply to the NYPD commissioner to appoint their employees as special patrol officers. If approved, the appointed officers acquire the same powers of arrest and to use physical force as police officers.

"These laws give Columbia the authority to have Special Patrol officers, with the police commissioner's appointment," Slater wrote in an email in response to Reuters' queries. "Columbia has individuals that meet the other requirements in the law such as a lengthy training program and have gone through the NYPD's application process."

She said the special patrol officers were authorized under the New York City administrative code that states they will "be subject to the orders of the commissioner and shall obey the rules and regulations of the department and conform to its general discipline."

Under city law, Columbia pays for the training and the salaries of the officers appointed by NYPD, and they remain Columbia employees. But they will also "possess all the powers and discharge all the duties" of regular NYPD patrol officers. The Columbia officers must report any summonses they issue and bring anyone they arrest to the local NYPD precinct.

People they arrest will be detained and processed in an office on a Columbia campus about 20 blocks uptown from the main Manhattan campus until they can be handed over to the precinct, Columbia said.

After publication of this article, Slater, the Columbia spokesperson, disputed the characterization of the laws and emphasized that the officers were employees of Columbia.

"They are hired, selected, employed, and funded by Columbia," Slater wrote in an email.

Reuters could not independently establish full details of how Columbia's officers have gone through the hiring and NYPD appointment process.

A spokesperson for the NYPD said the patrol officers would be unarmed, but declined to respond to other questions. The new officers must complete 162 hours of state-certified training, Columbia said, and under the law be sworn in by the police commissioner. They will then be able to patrol Columbia's privately owned buildings and gated plazas and lawns, which regular NYPD officers are generally not able to do.

Last spring, Columbia became the epicenter of a pro-Palestinian student protest movement that has roiled campuses around the world, drawing criticism from both Democratic and Republican politicians, donors and some students and faculty.

Columbia's board of trustees and the 111 students, staff and alumni who make up the University Senate have frequently been at odds over the best way to handle the protests.

The board of trustees appointed its co-chair, Claire Shipman, as interim university president last week.

Columbia's new officers have the same powers of warrantless search and arrest as any other police officer under New York's peace officer law. The state law permits the officers to use "physical force and deadly physical force in making an arrest or preventing an escape."

Slater said that the officers will work with the university's public safety office, but – unlike Columbia's 117 civilian safety employees – will have powers to "remove individuals from campus, issue citations and make arrests, if necessary and appropriate."

The plan was underway months before U.S. President Donald Trump returned to the White House. His administration, citing what it described as antisemitic harassment on and near the campus, demanded last month that Columbia tighten its protest rules or permanently lose federal funding. One of the nine demands was that the school deploy peace officers with arrest powers.

This week, Columbia's Office of Public Safety updated its website to say the new officers will allow Columbia "to respond more effectively and promptly to campus disruptions, while reducing our reliance on the NYPD."

Members of the Senate, the rule-making body that shares university governance with the trustees, said the trustees and president's office had informed them Columbia was seeking to recruit peace officers, but has not told them that NYPD has any involvement in the patrol officers they have hired.

Dr. Jeanine D'Armiento, a professor of medicine and the chair of the Senate's executive committee, and two other senators who asked not to be named, told Reuters that the president's office had repeatedly declined to tell them who in New York's government was authorizing the officers.

Columbia's Slater said the university was complying with all its bylaws and in the post-publication letter said "the fact that Columbia was looking to expand its safety team with peace officers has not been a secret."