Why does the power of campus police go unchecked?

Air Date: May 13, 2019

William Bess, 19, was apprehended by Temple Police and searched in 2017 when he was driving his parent’s car through the university’s neighborhood. He has filed a federal civil rights complaint against the Temple University Police Department. (Kimberly Paynter/WHYY)

William Bess, Jr. is suing the Temple University police department, saying he was the victim of racial profiling. Bess was 17 years old, driving his parents’ BMW a few blocks off campus, when he says he was pulled over and pulled out of his car at gunpoint. But when his family tried to file a complaint about the incident, they discovered that private campus police forces aren’t accountable to the public in the same way other police are — even though they have many of the same powers. Ryan Briggs, a reporter with WHYY’s PlanPhilly, explains on this episode of The Why.

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