Dear AU Community,

Periodically, American University reviews our approach and infrastructure to ensure campus safety and security. We also assess whether any new or revised steps are required to address current or future concerns. We updated the community last spring about initial work and preparations for a review this fall. One aspect of consideration for our review is the range of options available to the American University Police Department (AUPD) officers to help strengthen their ability to respond to situations involving firearms.

To address such a complex topic, we recognize that it is imperative to engage the entire university community, soliciting and gauging their possible concerns, as well as weighing all potential safety implications.

A Security Review Working Group (SRWG) was convened, comprising faculty and staff representatives as well as student participants, and led by myself and Assistant Vice President of University Police Services, Emergency Management, and Transportation Programs Phillip Morse. The group laid the groundwork to help the university community make informed decisions on the topic by developing the review process, outlining key questions, and planning specific actions for community engagement and education. They also have invited outside experts and practitioners in the field of policing and public safety to offer their insights to the community.

The security review, which will take place this semester, will consider the following options: 

• Maintaining the status quo of an unarmed campus police department, equipped with pepper spray and ASP batons. 
• Providing expanded less-than-lethal stand-off capability to address armed threats by persons in possession of weapons not involving firearms. 
• Ability to deploy firearms from police vehicles in threat situations involving weapons. 
• Arming all officers and supervisors.

To be clear, no decision has been made with regards to our options. Bringing the question to the community does not presume any decision or outcome, or that we will change our current approaches. 

The components of the review include: 

• Security Review Working Group Website – A new website will serve as a centralized repository for all the educational information, documents, and resources related to the review. 

• Education – Beginning in September, we will share information through community sessions about the current state of AUPD and campus safety measures. Sessions will include overviews of AUPD’s approaches to campus safety, its jurisdiction and procedures, crime statistics, and emergency management and preparedness. Additional sessions will feature insights from researchers, educators, and experts from the higher education and law enforcement communities on topics such as response times, training, trust, transparency, officer/community interactions, law enforcement history including challenging experiences that have affected different communities, and research on marginalized communities and policing.

Be sure to visit the website to find out details about topics and timings of the sessions.

• Community Forums – Forums will be conducted in October to facilitate community engagement and input from students, faculty, and staff. 

• Survey – A university-wide survey will be conducted in October to gauge the sentiment of the AU community regarding the various options.
• Report – The SRWG expects to complete its work by the end of the fall semester. 

Thank you in advance for your participation in this important review. We look forward to further community engagement as we continue these discussions into the fall semester. 

Onward. 

Bronté Burleigh-Jones
 CFO, VicePresident and Treasurer