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4/16/2026
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Rep. O’Brien and Sen. Appollonio applaud decision to arm CCRI and RIC campus cops
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STATE HOUSE – Rep. William W. O’Brien and Sen. Peter A. Appollonio Jr. are applauding the decision of the Council on Postsecondary Education to arm the campus police officers at the Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI) and Rhode Island College (RIC).
Both Representative O’Brien and Senator Appollonio introduced legislation (2026-H 7128, 2026-S 2053) this session that would mandate the arming of both the CCRI and RIC police forces. Currently, the University of Rhode Island is the only public university that has an armed police department.
“As I have been saying for years, in this chaotic and uncertain world, we must provide a safe and protected campus experience to the students, faculty, staff and visitors of our state colleges. I applaud the Council on Postsecondary Education and the leadership of CCRI and RIC for finally making the common-sense decision to take campus safety seriously by equipping campus police officers with the tools they need to protect the public. I truly wish that this decision wasn’t needed, but as we’ve seen over the past year, Rhode Island is not immune to horrific violence, and arming our campus police acknowledges this unfortunate fact,” said Representative O’Brien (D-Dist. 54, North Providence).
“During my time as a law enforcement officer, we lived by the motto of prepare for the worst and hope for the best. The decision to arm campus police at CCRI and RIC is a responsible measure to ensure preparedness, with the hope that officers are never faced with a situation requiring the use of these firearms, even as they remain ready to protect the lives of the public they serve. During these awful attacks that we are seeing all too often, seconds and minutes determine the severity of tragedy, and now these campuses will be equipped to neutralize the threat before more blood is shed,” said Senator Appollonio (D-Dist. 29, Warwick), who is a retired captain of the West Warwick Police Department.
For the past several legislative sessions, Representative O’Brien has introduced bills to equip public university and college police officers with firearms and to issue ballistic vests to campus police officers.
For more information, contact:
Andrew Caruolo, Publicist
State House Room 20
Providence, RI 02903
(401)222-6124
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