City College Police Chief Floats Arming Officers with Tasers

A no-gun policy has prevented City College police from being armed. Are Tasers the answer?

by John R. Adkins
jradproduction@gmail.com

 

City College Police Chief Mario Vasquez would not be the first to turn his back on the campus due to frustrations over empty holsters.

In 2007, the college’s chief of police, Carl Koehler, resigned after an unsuccessful attempt to arm his officers. 

Of the 116 state community colleges in California, City College’s police department is one of two that remains unarmed. 

In the case of a violent person coming onto campus, City College’s officers must call SFPD for backup and wait for them to arrive. In the past, this has allowed frightening incidents to occur that the CCPD cannot properly engage with.

While City College holds its unique posture of an unarmed campus police force, the college saw a record number of assaults and crime incidents on campus last semester.
The campus police reported five crime incidents throughout the fall of 2024, compared to only one incident reported off-campus the previous semester.

 

In November of 2024, Vasquez introduced the idea of equipping his officers with Tasers during a meeting with faculty members.

“I would love to get firearms eventually, but right now, maybe we can start with Tasers,” Chief Vasquez said.

“Our college has been post-certified since, I think, 2002; that’s 22 years we’ve been without firearms. I have no idea why,” he continued.

The decision to arm officers with guns or Tasers ultimately rests with the board of trustees. In 2017, a bid to arm the officers went through the college’s participatory governance council before the board of trustees shot it down.

“Students have felt that violence begets more violence, and when law enforcement has firearms, they are more likely to use them or depend on them,” Student Trustee Heather Brandt said.

The pervading sentiment amongst campus police officers today is that they “would still love to have firearms.” An officer who was not authorized to speak to the press stated that an aspiring officer intends to be able to serve their community. However, after extensive firearms training in the academy, they wondered if a position in the field without weapons would still have an impact.

Some students have cited that the absence of firearms forces officers to rely more heavily on de-escalation.

“We have a PhD in de-escalation. We don’t have anything else. It’s not something we can hang on our belt with the baton and pepper spray, but it’s the only other tool we have,” Vasquez said.

Former interim police chief at City College and 31-year veteran of the SFPD, Colleen Fatooh, had much to say about the inherent safety issues of an open campus in an urban environment.

“At City College, anybody can just walk in and do whatever they want. Just look at other colleges and universities and see how their police forces operate,” Fatooh said. “There are arguments for and against Tasers, but if you have a violent person or someone armed even with a knife, are you going to go in close? You better be pretty skilled with that baton.”

Fatooh, who currently teaches part-time in the Administrative Justice department at City College, responded positively to the idea of the CCPD carrying Tasers in the future. “They need more tools in their tool bag,” she said.

The president of the teacher’s union, Mary Bravewoman, stated that the positive working relationship with SFPD negated the need for firearms.

Bravewoman, who spoke for herself and not on behalf of the union, expressed the desire for a robust conversation between all constituency groups at the college before a decision is made regarding the Taser compromise. 

When discussing the Taser compromise with Interim Chancellor Bailey, he noted the topic’s preemptive nature. According to Vasquez, the idea of Tasers at this juncture was “just talk.”

However, the use of conductive energy devices remains controversial in San Francisco. Despite recent expansions to police funding for the SFPD, San Francisco is the only major metropolitan police force in the country that does not carry Tasers.

San Francisco police commissioners narrowly approved the use of Tasers for the SFPD in November of 2017 after a six-hour debate. Still, the public voted against Proposition H months later, and the funding evaporated. Supervisors at the time stated their positions were swayed by the three Taser-related deaths that happened in San Mateo in 2018.

For many San Franciscans, the thought of Tasers reminds them of the 2009 police shooting of Oscar Grant, when BART Officer Anthony Pirone claimed in court that he had intended to reach for his Taser.

However, like the BART police, City College has its own police force and can play by its own rules. Following a brief suspension period in 2010 after the killing of Oscar Grant, Tasers were reinstated to BART officers who have carried them ever since.
The San Francisco Police Officer’s Association stated that they believe Tasers can help increase the number of situations that are resolved safely. 

“At the end of the day, the actions of the suspect dictate the responses of our officers,” a spokesperson for the association told The Guardsman. 

 

Firearms training is not required of police officers whose employers prohibit the use of firearms. Still, Vasquez confirmed that all his officers undergo the same training as any other member of the SFPD at the academy.

“It’s just politics; people can say how some have died because of Tasers and all that, but you can swing the argument any way you want,” Fatooh said.