Prisons and Policing
UCPD and Its Injustices
The University of Chicago operates one of the world’s largest private police forces. As an incoming student who hears all the “dangers” of Chicago, this may come off as a good thing. However, it is just one of the tools the University uses to harm students and especially black and brown Chicago residents.
According to the school UCPD’s jurisdiction “extends north to 37th Street, south to 64th Street, east to Lake Shore Drive, and west to Cottage Grove Avenue.” What should be noted however is that of the 65,000 residents in its jurisdiction, only 15,000 are affiliated with the University, and about 50% of people in the jurisdiction are Black.
UCPD’s data reveals its rampant anti-Blackness: from 2015 to June 2022, 73.4% of traffic stops, 92.9% of street questionings, and 93.7% of vehicle searches were of Black people. These residents are double policed, since the UCPD (a state-certified department with the same powers as municipal police) actively collaborates and maintains concurrent jurisdiction with the Chicago Police Department (CPD).
Violence on the Student Body
UCPD also has a history of inflicting violence on the students.
In 2010, an officer placed Mauriece Dawson, a Black student, in a chokehold for allegedly being “rowdy” in the A level of UChicago’s Regenstein library, an area in which students don’t need to restrict their volume. Bystanders didn’t report Dawson’s behavior as anything out of the ordinary, yet UCPD still arrested him and charged him with trespassing and resisting arrest.
In 2018, a UCPD officer shot Charles Soji Thomas, a Black student, in the midst of a mental health crisis. This student was subsequently criminalized and incarcerated in the horrid conditions of Cook County Jail.
In October of 2024, UCPD used a police car as a barrier against Pro-Palestine students protesters and proceeded to pepperspray and beat them. One student was present at the protest and targeted by UCPD. They were racially profiled and targeted due to their various postions on campus as admin evicted them from their dorms and later arrested, resulting in them being detained for over 30 hours. A quote from one cop at the protest towards the student was “I want that b*tch.”
What We Know and What We Can Do
Don’t be fooled, UCPD is not here to protect you but instead to extend the power of the University has Their constant surveillance of student protester demonstrate this alongside with their surveillance through the privately owned UChicago Crime Lab. The Crime Lab is connected with UCPD and Government agencies in hopes of “reducing crime” but instead fuel hostile situations and continue the surveying of black and brown populations.
Despite the threat of UCPD there are still things you can do to help! Get involved on campus with orgs such as CareNotCops (CNC) with the mission of disarming, defunding, and disbanding its private militarized to instead support existing community care networks. CNC regularly provides jail support for people released from local jails and holds meetings to foster community conversations and see what should be done to bring justice for various communities.
