Portland State University announced Thursday that campus safety officers will no longer carry guns during patrol.
The move comes as Portland nears 80 days of continuous protests against police violence and systemic racism.
Students at Portland State have lobbied to get guns removed from campus security. It was one of the issues that caused students and supporters to shut down a governing board meeting at the school in 2016.
In 2018, Navy veteran Jason Washington was killed by a campus police officer during a melee outside of the Cheerful Tortoise. The killing of Washington, who was Black, renewed calls to take guns away from campus safety.
Willie Halliburton, the university’s new campus safety chief, told The Oregonian/OregonLive that he believes disarming the officers “needed to be done.”
“We can do an effective job without weapons,” he said. “I know they’re talented to do their jobs without the use of a weapon.”
PSU spokesperson Christina Williams said patrols will be unarmed by fall.
“Firearms will be kept at the CPSO office for emergency situations,” Williams said.
Portland State in a statement called the move “an important first step of a new process to Reimagine Campus Safety.”
In October, Portland State nearly doubled the number of unarmed officers and increased training in non-lethal techniques, but declined to disarm the force.
Portland State currently has six sworn officers and 7 non-sworn, unarmed, campus security officers.
“Over the past few weeks we have listened to many voices across our campus,” PSU President Stephen Percy wrote in an email to the Portland State community about the change.
“The calls for change that we are hearing at PSU are ringing out across our nation. We must find a new way to protect the safety of our community, one that eliminates systemic racism and promotes the dignity of all who come to our urban campus.”
The university made the announcement at 11 a.m. and held a virtual press conference at 2 p.m.
In the five years that police have been armed on campus, there have been less than a handful of times that officers took their guns out, Halliburton said.
The campus officers will remain certified as police officers as long as they keep their training up to date, but they will no longer respond to any calls on campus that involve weapons. Under an agreement, Portland police will respond to those calls instead.
Halliburton said it was his decision and hopes "it will bring healing to this campus."
“This is uncharted territory,” Halliburton said during the press conference.
“I did a lot of reflecting, including my own experiences,” Halliburton said. “I think this decision is going to be the best for our campus.”
Halliburton said the campus safety team would partner with Portland police in critical situations on calls when weapons are involved.
He said campus safety would still be responding to calls like burglary and trespassing.
Halliburton said he would do everything he can not to put his officers in vulnerable situations.
Percy cited “our growing commitment to anti-racism” as one of the catalysts for the timeline of the change.
“We mourn the tragic loss of Jason Washington,” Percy said, saying his death contributed to the university to reconsider the use of weapons.
-- Lizzy Acker and Maxine Bernstein