Though the recent shooting of Detective Sgt. James Allen of the Providence Police Depart-ment has escalated concern regarding the safety of police officers in situations involving firearms, University officials say the incident will not likely affect the University's preparation for arming Department of Public Safety officers.
Allen was allegedly shot and killed with his own gun April 17 by a suspect he was questioning at the Providence Public Safety Complex. In response to the incident, Providence Police Chief Dean Esserman said he would review the safety of officers who are questioning suspects, according to the Providence Journal.
"I'm sure that there will be a thorough investigation by Chief Esserman into what happened there, and I'm sure that there will be some lessons learned and that they will share with us any procedures that they are going to implement in light of their investigation," said Vice President for Administration Walter Hunter, who oversees DPS.
Questioning suspects is one of the responsibilities of DPS officers.
DPS - almost a year and a half into preparations for arming its force - is currently undertaking training and psychological testing for officers. Though the decision to equip officers with firearms was originally announced in late 2003, there is no announced timeline for the switchover.
"Readiness (for an armed police force) needs to be demonstrated, and whatever time that takes is the time it'll take," said Mark Nickel, director of the Brown News Service.
DPS has a disengagement policy that prevents officers from entering situations where a weapon is involved. Though the policy exists to ensure the safety of the police force, it prevents officers from acting when "people are likely to be needing police intervention the most," Nickel said.
Vehicle stops are an example of the limits this disengagement policy imposes.
"Vehicle stops are the riskiest things officers do - you have no idea if the people inside the vehicle are armed. If they know that they're being stopped by an unarmed officer, it's a situation that you can't put (officers) in," Nickel said.
"We've got really great police officers, but they have to be trained and equipped to handle all sorts of situations," Nickel said. "There's a limit to what the University can ask police to do who are not armed, who do not have the tools that a municipal police force would have at any town or city in Rhode Island."
The decision to arm DPS officers came after over a decade of consideration and several failed proposals in the early 1990s rejected by then-President Vartan Gregorian. In 1998, DPS was the third police force in Rhode Island and the first in the Ivy League to gain accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies.
