Portland State University Rearms Its Cops

Portland State University’s campus police are getting their guns back, a response to an increased number of weapons being found on campus and limited assistance from a thinly stretched Portland Police Bureau, according to a campuswide email sent by university president Stephen Percy this morning.

The school disarmed its cops in 2021 in response to years of protests after campus police fatally shot Jason Washington, a 45-year-old Black man who was trying to break up a fight outside a sports bar. In 2019, PSU paid Washington’s family $1 million to settle a lawsuit.

“While this may seem like a step backward in our ongoing efforts to achieve lasting change, it does not alter our commitment to actively pursue a campus safety system that prizes deescalation, respects the dignity of our diverse campus community, and finds a path to return to regular unarmed patrols on campus,” Percy wrote.

In an accompanying video, campus security Chief Willie Halliburton called it a “hard decision,” saying he had not “abandoned unarmed patrols” and that his nine officers would have discretion over whether to bring along a firearm.