MCLA Continues Discussion on Arming Campus Police
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts' campus police will host another round of community meetings before drafting a proposal to arm the officers with lethal force."We’re having a continuation of smaller community-based meetings throughout the fall and these meetings are designed for two purposes: one is to provide those smaller community environments with the work that I did over the summer, and also to provide an additional venue for people to ask more…questions and offer their concerns and opinions," the college's Public Safety Director Joseph Charon told the board of trustees on Tuesday.
Charon said he took the information from earlier community meetings regarding firearms and developed four focus areas: policy, psychological suitability screenings, training and cost analysis.
"As far as policy research and development goes some of the things that I did was to review Massachusetts state universities' firearms and use-of-force policies. I also did some site visits to the college campuses that had sworn armed police officers," Charon said.
Charon said he also researched and contacted the testing facility used by other state universities to learn about the process for conducting psychological screenings of police officers being considered for issuance of duty firearms.
"This is suitability testing that all police officers would go through as a measure of professional standards for becoming armed," Charon said.
Additionally, he obtained firearms training information for officers and training not directly related to firearms handling.
"I also looked at opportunities for professional development besides being specifically focused on weapons and firearms training. But professional development that may not be directly related to — but may correlate — to carrying a firearm. So things like professional development on multiculturalism, the escalation techniques, [and] verbal judo," Charon said.
He finished by outlining the costs for arming campus safety officers at $25,000 for implementation and then an annual cost of $6,000.
Charon also updated the board on the public safety office being moved from the Amsler Campus Center to the former Brewer-Perkins dealership building on Ashland Street.
"As we discussed the move, we had a collaboration with McCann [Technical] School and we worked with some of the CAD students at McCann School who are now, ironically, students here at MCLA ... They helped us do some of the building designs of that project," Charon said.
Charon added that public safety had a media campaign to make sure the campus community was aware of the change, including a map of the campus with a route to public safety highlighted.
In other news, the board voted to rename the Church Street Center after Eleanor Furst Roberts of the Hardman family.
Tags: firearms, MCLA police,
