Vanessa Miller

Provides an empirical survey and critical analysis of university police statutes in all fifty jurisdictions, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. Employs a cross-disciplinary approach, combining legal, qualitative, and critical analyses to provide a comprehensive overview of the legal landscape surrounding university police across the United States.

Takes a broad critical approach to the legal authority and protections afforded to campus police officers that ultimately make it more difficult for victims of discriminatory police interactions, who are disproportionately racially marginalized campus community members, to hold police officers accountable. Discusses statutes, qualified immunity, and a lack of institutional infrastructure.

Highlights the lack of academic attention on campus policing in American colleges, and notes that the historical and social contexts influencing campus policing, including its racial implications, are often overlooked in legal analyses. Explores the historical, legal, and policy issues concerning campus policing and race, and argues that despite universities presenting themselves as crime-free zones, they actively invest in and collaborate with campus police.

Examines the impact of anti-critical race theory (CRT) bills on higher education. Analyzes state anti- CRT laws and policies in higher education from a legal perspective, highlighting their conflict with First Amendment principles and their detrimental effects on educational equity.

Examines how anti-CRT legislative initiatives that extend to public colleges and universities potentially violate the First Amendment academic freedom rights of individual faculty, with a particular focus on what is widely referred to as Florida’s Stop WOKE Act.