Johns Hopkins University has released finalized policies and procedures for its private police force, an initiative that has faced pushback from the campus and neighboring communities.

The policies and procedures were shared this week after a “lengthy community feedback and revision process” that included students, faculty, staff and community residents, according to the university.

“These policies adhere to national best practices in community-focused public safety and reflect the values of Johns Hopkins,” wrote Branville Bard Jr., vice president for Johns Hopkins Public Safety and chief of police, in a message to the campus on Wednesday.

A wave of early opposition paused Hopkins’ plans for a police force for years — students, university employees and community advocates worried armed police would cause more harm than good and make people in the community feel unsafe. A Baltimore Banner investigation in 2022 found that violent crime surrounding Hopkins’ campuses either stayed flat or declined between 2018 and 2021, around the time the Maryland General Assembly passed a bill to allow the university to start its own police department.

The university also said it hired two veteran officers who will serve in leadership positions in the Johns Hopkins Police Department: Monique Brown, a 24-year veteran of the Baltimore Police Department, and Robert Reed, a former commander in the Administrative and Technical Support Bureau at Towson University.

Brown will oversee and manage police services on Hopkins’ Homewood, East Baltimore and Peabody campuses as the deputy chief of operations. Reed will be the captain of the JHPD, and he will “regularly engage” with students, faculty, staff and neighbors.

The university said Brown and Reed will work closely with the university campus security and experts in behavioral health to incorporate a “holistic, layered approach to public safety.”

Scaling up to its ‘full form’

The final policies drew from procedures used by police departments that have undergone “substantial reform efforts,” according to the university’s website, including the Baltimore Police Department. Hopkins said it also followed national guidance from civil rights organizations and criminal justice reform efforts, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, and the Center for Innovation in Community Safety at Georgetown Law School.

Experts from the nonprofit National Policing Institute, which researches policing, and 21st Century Policing Solutions, a consulting firm that is overseeing implementation of the Baltimore Police Department’s federal consent decree, were also part of the process. The latter published a report analyzing community input and feedback that was released alongside the final policies. Bard Jr. said community feedback was “not just valuable, but integral” to the development of the Johns Hopkins Police Department.

Between September 2023 and January 2024, the university received 883 comments on 89 draft policies, according to the 21st Century Policing Solutions report. About 45% of the comments were from people not affiliated with the university and 30% came from students and faculty.

Much of the feedback focused on the guiding principles of the department, but also touched on fair and impartial policing, the university’s procedure for violations of rules of conduct, use of force and interaction with LGBTQIA+ people.

Many were also concerned with police interactions with the public, according to the report, and called for more detailed directives on inclusivity and use of deadly force. Several were concerned the policy did not “sufficiently acknowledge” the “historical and existing” tensions between the university and the community.

The report stressed that policy development and its alignment with community needs is an ongoing task. Under the new policies, the JHPD will have a public comment period of 30 days before procedures are finalized and published.

“Establishing JHPD will not be a matter of ‘flipping a light switch on’ — instead, it will be a gradual, phased approach to scaling the Department to its full form,” the report read.