By Megan Sayles
AFRO Staff Writer
msayles@afro.com
Residents and students from across Baltimore joined the Baltimore Abolition Movement (BAM) on Dec. 15 at War Memorial Plaza to demand an end to the Johns Hopkins Police Department (JHPD). Protesters braved frigid temperatures to request a hearing from the Baltimore City Council, a hiring halt at JHPD, an exit from the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between JHPD and the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) and the complete elimination of the private police force.
More than 1,000 people have signed BAM’s petition thus far. The organization delivered their petition to 12 of the 14 council members during the rally.
“We want to make sure that the people’s voices are being heard in these moments. Even though we got to this point, this is just the starting point on our path to abolish this unnecessary threat to our community,” said Malcolm Walker, BAM organizer. “With that being said, rather than wait for our city council members to sit on their hands, we’re going to continue to put pressure on them.”
The demonstration comes as the private police force at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) has been gradually taking shape over the past several years. The push emerged in 2018 when school officials voiced concerns about rising violent crime on and near the campus. Though the plan was met with opposition from students and surrounding community members, the Maryland General Assembly passed a bill in 2019 allowing JHU to establish its police force.
After the murder of George Floyd in 2020, the formation of the department was put on hold amid widespread protests over police violence and accountability. A few years later, the effort resumed. Branville G. Bard Jr. was appointed the inaugural police chief of the JHPD in 2023, and the first officers were sworn in in December 2024.
During the rally, undergraduate student Francis Phillip, a member of the Black Alliance for Peace, criticized the public safety rhetoric used to justify the department’s creation. He argued that crime is often framed as a neutral, objective problem, when in reality it functions as what he dubbed a “Trojan horse for colonial control”— or a politically constructed concept used to legitimize expanded policing and surveillance.
“It is rarely about public safety, but instead functions as the primary language through which state agencies validate their own existence—justifying the expansion of control, the suppression of dissent and the cultural enforcement of the social order that maintains hegemony,” said Phillip. “This manipulation reveals a continuum where the domestic police state and global imperialism are interconnected systems using the same logic of criminalization to manage population resources.”
In response to the concerns raised by protesters, a JHU spokesperson offered the university’s perspective on the department’s creation and mission.
“Johns Hopkins is committed to building and supporting a safe environment for our students, faculty, staff, patients and neighbors. The Johns Hopkins Police Department upholds the highest standards of constitutional, accountable law enforcement, working to address the root causes of crime and establish community trust,” said Doug Donovan, spokesperson for JHU. “Since being signed into law in 2019, the comprehensive statutory process the Maryland General Assembly set out for the development and operation of the Johns Hopkins Police Department has been affirmed by the Maryland courts and supplemented by community input.”
Over 2025, the JHPD has hired 25 police officers, according to Donovan. The department has plans to expand the force to 100 employees— the legal maximum— by the end of 2027.
“These new officers will work alongside the university’s Behavioral Health Crisis Support Team and the more than 1,000 public safety personnel who are already working across the university and health system,” said Donovan. “Additionally, Johns Hopkins recognizes the importance of having officers who are a part of the community in Baltimore City, and we are establishing several initiatives to promote local hiring and residency.”
Now that BPD is under local control, the city council has the power to terminate its collaboration with JHPD. BAM plans to continue pressing council members and calling for the department’s abolition in 2026. The organization is looking for more people to join their effort.
“When we come together as a united front to challenge policing at every level, from JHPD, to BPD, to ICE, we can begin to shift the balance of power together,” said Jack Lewis, organizer with BAM. “We can reject the lie that more police means more safety and embrace the simple idea that true safety comes from giving people what they need to live.”
