Campus Policing as Extraterritorial Expansion

• In Event: Division J Vice Presidential Session: Dismantling Injustice in Campus Policing and Reimagining Safety

Abstract

This paper synthesizes research conducted by the author on university-driven gentrification. The paper focuses on the role of campus police as a critical tool in urban development and renewal projects that are tied to university expansion. The author provides a comparative, historical analysis of universities based in two metropolitan centers (Chicago and Baltimore) to argue that campus policing is an exercise of institutional brute strength and soft power that results in the control of local communities. The analysis is then situated within the conditions of campus expansion, community displacement, and the racial reckoning of 2020. The author concludes by arguing that universities have bolstered the discourse of public safety, which operates to obscure and justify displacement and capital accumulation.

Author

• Davarian Baldwin, Trinity College