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3/6/2025
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Rep. O’Brien renews call to arm campus police at public colleges
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STATE HOUSE – In light of today’s incident at the Community College of Rhode Island’s (CCRI) Lincoln campus, Rep. William W. O’Brien is renewing his call to arm campus police at CCRI and Rhode Island College (RIC), and he has reintroduced legislation (2025-H 5666) that would mandate arming campus police at public higher educational institutions. Representative O’Brien has been introducing the bill for the past several years.
“Today’s incident in Lincoln should serve as a wake-up call to the presidents of CCRI and RIC. Thank goodness that no one was injured or killed today, but we were lucky, and the sad reality is that the campuses of CCRI and RIC are not prepared for these types of incidents and attacks due to their presidents’ refusal to arm their campus police,” said Representative O’Brien (D-Dist. 54, North Providence).
Currently, the University of Rhode Island (URI) is the only public institute of higher education that has armed its campus police officers. URI instituted this policy in 2015. Representative O’Brien notes that Brown University in Providence, a private institution, also has campus police officers that carry firearms.
“I have spoken in depth with the police chiefs whose communities host the CCRI and RIC campuses and all of them agree that campus police should be armed and trained to respond to these types of incidents. Yet, the presidents of these institutions continue to bury their heads in the sand and choose to ignore the common-sense safety precaution of arming their campus police. We cannot keep ignoring this problem by hoping a campus attack will not occur in Rhode Island. Today’s event underscores the irrationality of this viewpoint and I pray that the administrations of CCRI and URI finally come to their senses and do what’s necessary to protect their students and staff,” concluded Representative O’Brien.
Representative O’Brien’s legislation has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee.
For more information, contact:
Andrew Caruolo, Publicist
State House Room 20
Providence, RI 02903
(401)222-6124
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