Protesters call on Baltimore leaders to disband Johns Hopkins' private police force
Protesters rallied in front of Baltimore's City Hall on Monday, calling on city leaders to eliminate Johns Hopkins University's private police force.
The Baltimore Abolition Movement (BAM) says more than 1,000 people signed a petition, demanding that the Baltimore City Council hold a hearing and abolish the private police department.
The group says the armed police force was created without the community's consent, and that there has been no communication from the city about how they want to manage the police force.
Protesters also said that the city should end the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Baltimore Police Department and JHPD, which allows the campus to have a private and armed police force.
The MOU creates boundaries between the departments, dictating which agencies respond to which calls and when city police lead an investigation.
"We feel that a police force, particularly a private police force, which is only accountable to the administrative board at Johns Hopkins, is not an accountable force that is actually meant to keep students, community members, and neighbors of Hopkins safe," said Meg Chow, an organizer of the Baltimore Abolition Movement. "It is designed to defend the property of Johns Hopkins and Johns Hopkins as an entity, and not the people who live and work there."
JHPD response
Johns Hopkins University has 24 sworn officers and three staff members hired to protect its campus. The private police department can hire up to 100 people.
JHU police data shows that over the past two months, officers have responded to mostly theft, burglary, and a couple of assaults. In October, a repeat violent offender, 31-year-old Raymond Lunn, was arrested on charges of attempted rape, according to police.
Police said the attempted rape happened near the Quad and Clark Hall on the Johns Hopkins University campus on October 18.
How the JHPD was established
The Johns Hopkins University Police Department was formed in 2024 after a Maryland law signed in 2019 allowed the university to create its own private and armed police force.
JHU paused the plan in 2020 after nationwide unrest over police brutality following the death of George Floyd. The university revived the proposal in 2022, sharing details about the department and later holding a 60-day public comment period.
Students, staff, and community advocates voiced their concerns about safety and accountability.
Johns Hopkins proceeded with the police force by sharing final policies and procedures and swearing in its first officers in December 2024.
"We don;t think that policing keeps us safe, that they have a role to protect property, not people, and that it's going to be up to us to continue pushing," Chow said. "Even beyond a hearing, we are going to continue organizing and pushing to actually begin to implement something that represents what our interests are and what we want to see in our society."