The Colonial, Racial Vestiges of Campus Police: A Systematic Literature Review

• In Event: Policing and Carcerality in Higher Education

Abstract

Across the country, students have demonstrated in response to the police murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and Tyre Nichols, resurfacing conversations about policing and their impact on safety in institutions of higher education (IHEs). Following Squire et al.’s (2021) call to interrogate the racist and colonial foundations of IHEs, this paper examines the historical context of campus police within the history of systems of policing in the United States. The guiding research question is: how, if at all, does campus policing function as a vestige of slave patrols designed to protect whiteness? If we are to truly reckon with the colonial foundations of higher education, its dependence and history with campus police must be at the center.

Author

• Kelly Schlabach, University of Connecticut