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Comment by chrisseaton | Hacker News Reader

> have police forces

Literally their own police forces? How does that work? Where do they get the authority to be police from? Who are they sworn to?

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They get the authority from the state. My alma mater University of Maryland had its own police force. They were sworn gun-carrying officers of the law same as the county cops and state troopers.

Are they university employees? And they're carrying guns?! What do you need a gun for at a university?

They're police officers. It's pretty standard to carry.

The same reason any other cop would need guns. Hell, we had a high profile death of an armed MIT police officer not that long ago (Boston bombings). Universities can and do face external threats, so even if the students themselves aren't packing heat (which is itself sometimes the case), there's non-student criminals who cause the same kinds of problems they would anywhere else. I remember there being lots of break-ins, robberies, even some rapes on-campus. UMD is in Prince Georges County, which has some pretty sketchy high-crime areas in it, and students are vulnerable victims.

The university cops are mostly there to protect the students (from off-campus trouble-makers, and also from each other; especially re: alcohol problems).

> The same reason any other cop would need guns.

So, none. Regular police routinely carrying guns is crazy. Leave it to specialists. You don’t need a gun to police a place of learning.

I have never need an AED device, but I know where the one is in my office and I know how to use it. A gun for a police officer should be the same: they have it and know how to use it, but almost all retire without even once having used it. A gun is almost never needed for police duty, but when it is nothing else will substitute and seconds are counting (police only use a gun when not killing someone fast will make the overall situation worse).

You can say leave it to specialists, but that is the job of the police.

> police only use a gun when not killing someone fast will make the overall situation worse

I'm not sure this is really true. I've seen quite a few news stories about them shooting when it didn't really look like there was any need at all. I think police officers also fairly regularly injure themselves accidentally with their weapons.

I fundamentally don't think a gun is an appropriate tool for a civilian community police force. Batons and electric stunners yes in an emergency if really needed. Actual firearms? Not really appropriate in my opinion.

I will fully agree police use their guns far too often. This is a real issue.

However that issue is unrelated what I was talking about.

> This is a real issue.

And it's solved by not giving ordinary police officers guns to carry around.

In Massachusetts they are state police (at UMass at least)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Institute_of_Tec...

Usually they are deputized by the local city or county.

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