Policy Development
As part of our commitment to transparency, accountability, and community engagement, Johns Hopkins launched a community-oriented feedback process that included a 90-day public comment period for the first group of policies, which concluded on December 20, 2023 and a 60-day public comment period for the second group, which concluded on January 29, 2024.
We reviewed, adopted, and incorporated recommended changes and feedback into the final version of the policies that align with JHU’s values and commitments permissible within legal parameters, and supported by national best practices for community policing and public safety.
In addition to the final policies, a disposition report detailing all comments received and adopted and an external report summarizing the policy development and feedback process were published online.
Policy development is an ongoing process. We will be regularly reviewing and updating our policies. We continue to welcome your input and feedback via email to publicsafetyfeedback@jhu.edu or the JHPS feedback form, Contact Public Safety.
We remain dedicated to implementing policies that community advocates and leading experts have advanced in nationwide law enforcement reform efforts.
About the Policies
The JHPD policies are based on examples of 21st century best practices in public safety policy, identified through extensive benchmarking of university and municipal law enforcement agencies across the nation. Taken together, they represent a comprehensively progressive approach to policing that prioritizes equity, transparency, accountability, and community-based public safety strategies.
The policies were drafted to exceed the minimum requirements of the Constitution and laws of the United States and the State of Maryland, to align with the Community Safety and Strengthening Act (CSSA) and to fulfill the requirements of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Johns Hopkins University and the Baltimore Police Department.
Material that was considered in the creation of these policies, included:
- Publicly available policies from municipal police departments that have undergone substantial reform efforts, including: New Orleans Police Department; Seattle Police Department; Portland Police Department; Detroit Police Department; Ferguson Police Department; and Baltimore Police Department;
- National guidance on best practices and model policies from criminal justice reform efforts, social science research centers, and civil rights organizations, including: the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights; American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), including the ACLU of Massachusetts’s “Racially Just Policing: Model Policies for Colleges and Universities”; the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP); the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF); U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office); The Justice Collaboratory (The JC) at Yale University Law School; and The Center for Innovation in Community Safety (CICS) at Georgetown Law School;
- National and local higher education institutions that are based in comparable environments and make policies publicly available, including: Carnegie Mellon University; Morgan State University; Towson University; University of Chicago; University of Cincinnati; University of Maryland, Baltimore County; University of Pennsylvania; and Yale University.
To ensure that the proposed directives captured national best practices in community-focused public safety services, the development team collaborated with independent experts from the National Policing Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing excellence in policing through research and innovation, and 21CP Solutions, an expert consulting team made up of former law enforcement personnel, academics, civil rights lawyers, and community leaders dedicated to advancing safe, fair, equitable, and inclusive public safety solutions. Each directive was reviewed by experts selected by both organizations, who provided feedback, suggestions, and edits that were fully incorporated into the current draft.
Finally, individuals and organizations representing the diversity of the University community provided feedback to ensure the policies and procedures reflect and respond to the values of our institution and to our community’s public safety service needs.
Policy Process
To guide the development and refinement of JHPD policies, we sought input from our community to ensure transparency and engagement through an extensive community-oriented feedback process from September 2023 through January 2024.
On April 27, 2023, Dr. Bard hosted a virtual forum to outline the policy development and feedback process. A forum recording is available on the Public Safety Virtual Events page. The presentation on the policy process can be found here.
Before being available for public review and comment, all draft policies were shared with the JH Accountability Board. Board members were invited to provide feedback on the draft policies in writing and during the Board’s public meetings.
All the feedback obtained during this process will be documented and published in a report, along with the final policies, for everyone to access online.
Outside experts, 21CP Solutions, prepared the following questions to help prompt discussion of the draft policies.
- Is this policy consistent with the values and needs of the community?
- Does this policy help JHPD safely carry out its stated mission?
- Is this policy understandable? Are there any points that need clarification?
- Is there anything that needs to be addressed in this policy that isn’t currently reflected in the draft?
Our community also heard from nationally recognized experts on progressive policing reforms and learned more about the draft policies during our “Ask the Experts” sessions, which allowed the public to engage on JHPD-specific policy questions before submitting their feedback.
The first of two sessions, “University Policing, Policy, and Getting it Right,” featured a conversation between Dr. Bard and Dr. Robin Engel, a nationally respected criminologist who has spent more than two decades working in policing research designed to reduce harm in communities and make police-community encounters safer.
The second and last session featured a conversation between Dr. Bard and James Whalen, who retired in 2022 as the Director of Public Safety and Chief of Police at the University of Cincinnati. James Whalen worked for nearly 30 years at the Cincinnati Police Department before joining the university and played a significant role in the development and implementation of reform measures at both the Cincinnati Police Department and the University of Cincinnati.
After the public comment period closed for both tranches of draft policies, we reviewed, adopted, and incorporated recommended changes and feedback that was aligned with JHU’s values and commitments, permissible within legal parameters, and supported by national best practices for community policing and public safety.
Although the public comment periods have ended, policy development is an ongoing process. We will be regularly reviewing and updating our policies. We continue to welcome your input and feedback via email to publicsafetyfeedback@jhu.edu or the JHPS feedback form, Contact Public Safety.
In addition to the final policies, a disposition report detailing all comments received and adopted and an external report summarizing the policy development and feedback process were published online.
Review Reports
Policies Disposition Report
This policies disposition report details all community feedback received on the draft policies during the public comment period, including more than 800 unique comments and questions, and specifies how each comment was addressed.
External 21CP Report
Drafted by outside experts 21st Century Policing Solutions, this report describes the policy development process, summarizes the sharing and socialization of the draft policy manual, provides an overview of the public feedback, and synthesizes the major themes of the community’s input and feedback.
