Johns Hopkins University

Strengthening Act passed the Maryland General Assembly and was signed into law in April 2019, granting Johns Hopkins University permission to establish a private police department. In response to perceived corruption, a group of protestors staged a sit-in of Garland Hall, the building housing the office of university president Ronald J. Daniels. After a month-long sit-in, the protestors "took over the building – locking its doors with chains." They held the building for a week until May 8, 2019, when "[a]t 5:50 a.m., at the request of Johns Hopkins University," Baltimore police surrounded the building and arrested "three community members, one undergraduate and one graduate student" who were occupying the building.
In the wake of the May 2020 killing of George Floyd and the subsequent protests, a group of Hopkins faculty along with 2,500 Hopkins staff, students, and community members signed a petition calling on president Daniels to reconsider the planned police department. The office of public safety issued …