WHEREAS this Senate and its constituent senators have, collectively and individually, reviewed years of documents and testimony, including, most recently, from Vice-President Branville Bard, regarding the proposal to create a Johns Hopkins Police Department (JHPD), armed with lethal
force,
WHEREAS, despite our concerns about the effects of crime on our community, we have continued to find arguments that this armed force will measurably improve the safety of members of our community unsupported by evidence,
WHEREAS we regard the risks of such a force for our community—including but not limited to racial profiling, fear and distress, the suppression of the free expression of dissent, and bodily
injury and death—as significant,
WHEREAS we are particularly concerned about the risks for BIPOC in our community from the implementation of such a force,
WHEREAS we are also concerned about the accountability of the proposed force to adjacent communities and the potential for private policing of public space, which has been a component of every map of patrol areas we have reviewed,
WHEREAS we remain unsure of the long-term costs of such a force, including as a consequence of resulting litigation,
WHEREAS we have not seen evidence of significant faculty support for an armed force,
WHEREAS we have seen significant faculty opposition to the proposal for an armed force,
WHEREAS we are particularly concerned by the overwhelming opposition to the proposed force on the part of Black faculty on the Homewood campus,

WE, the Faculty Senate of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, HEREBY RESOLVE that the Administration be informed of our strong opposition to the proposed armed force, and that it be urged to find a different way forward.