Following the Dec. 13 mass shooting at Brown, State Sen. Peter Appollonio Jr. (D-Warwick) and State Rep. William O’Brien (D-North Providence) have introduced legislation that would mandate public Rhode Island colleges and universities to arm their campus police officers.
While public colleges in Rhode Island are permitted to arm their campus police, the University of Rhode Island is currently the only one that does. The Community College of Rhode Island and Rhode Island College do not choose to arm their campus officers with “firearms or tasers” and are the only colleges in New England that choose not to do so, according to a press release from O’Brien.
Private colleges in the state have the same right, but Brown is the only one that provides campus officers with firearms.
“The shooting at Brown University makes it clear that Rhode Island’s schools are not immune to the terrible tragedies occurring far too frequently throughout our country,” Appollonio said in the press release. “While I pray that such a terrible situation does not occur again in our state, we must equip our campus police officers with the tools they need to protect innocents if evil once again attacks one of our schools.”
O’Brien first introduced similar legislation in the 2019 legislative session, and has reintroduced the bill or comparable legislation several times. The current iteration of the bill has been co-signed by 37 house members.
“Our campuses need a faster response (to active shootings) and the only solution is armed campus cops,” O’Brien said in a 2023 press release.
“We cannot afford to wait any longer to make the necessary changes to keep our state campuses safe,” O’Brien said in the 2026 press release.
At CCRI, “focus has been and continues to be maintaining a safe campus environment every day, not in response to any given moment,” according to CCRI Chief Marketing Officer Keith Paul.
He added that the college is currently participating in an “independent review” with the R.I. Office of the Postsecondary Commissioner so that their decisions “are informed and aligned with best practices.”
Paul shared that CCRI currently equips their campus officers with radios, handcuffs, expandable batons, pepper spray and rubber gloves.
Appollonio, Senate sponsor of the legislation, wrote in an email to The Herald that the State Police report suggests that the “immediate response options to a serious threat” for unarmed officers are “limited” and often “ineffective.”
Appollonio — a former captain with the West Warwick Police Department who helped “develop school emergency and response plans” and an RIC parent and alum — sees the issue of campus safety as both “professional and personal.”
“Before students even arrive at college, many of them have spent their high school years in buildings protected by trained and armed school resource officers,” Appollonio wrote. “It’s reasonable to consider whether a similar level of protection should exist when those same students move into higher education.”
Both Paul and Appollonio also noted that CCRI’s and RIC’s campus officers are already sworn officers, many of whom are coming from various municipalities.
“This bill is about equipping trained professionals, not creating a new police presence on campus,” Appollonio wrote.
Before being able to carry firearms, officers would have to undergo training certified by the Rhode Island Police Officers Commission on Standards and Training and meet the state’s qualification standards, Appollonio added.
But critics say that adding firearms to campuses will cause more harm than good. “We have opposed this legislation for a number of years. There is a tremendous danger inherent in promoting the presence of guns on college campuses,” Steven Brown, the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island’s executive director, wrote in an email to The Herald.
“Introducing weapons to college campuses brings with it the very real danger of accidental discharges and tragic cases of misunderstandings and misidentifications,” he added.
Steven Brown also mentioned their wariness of the fact that campus police officers would become included under Rhode Island’s Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights, a law that “makes it very difficult to discipline officers who have engaged in misconduct.”
“While no method is foolproof, one can clearly strengthen security without reliance on armed police officers,” Steven Brown added. He also noted that “the presence of armed officers on Brown’s campus was unable to prevent December’s tragic shooting from happening.”
But to Appollonio, the shooting solidified the need for this legislation. “The hypothetical risk is no longer theoretical,” he wrote. “The question is whether we act before a tragedy or after one.”
Annika Melwani is a metro senior staff writer covering state politics and justice. She is from New York City and plans on concentrating in English and International and Public Affairs. In her free time, she can be found reading or drinking an iced vanilla latte.
