[ptaipale]

Jurisdiction issues in America were already pointed out, but I'd also remind that in the Old World, universities and their campuses traditionally enjoyed certain kinds of autonomy. This could even extend to immunity from prosecution by regular authorities, with the university as its own jurisdiction handling at least some offences autonomically.

This is, I believe, now completely a thing of the past almost everywhere, but America being rather conservative, there could be echoes of it around.

[wu-ikkyu]

>immunity from prosecution by regular authorities

This is still the case at many universities. Offenses which would be classified as criminal (i.e. public intoxication) are handled internally by the university. From one perspective, handling the mistakes of students like this is a way of protecting the university's revenue stream, as parents often withdraw their children from the university after a criminal offense.

[digler999]

I was going to reply and mention that protecting the revenue stream is a cynical outlook, given that campus PD can also protect students from graduating college and having a "criminal record" for public intoxication or other petty charges.

But then I recalled an article earlier this year about how "campus PD" have been intervening in sexual assault cases and trying to get them handled by the university instead of the justice system, where there's public record and of course publicity.

[nylonstrung]

There's no doubt that the school I went wins over students and their 70K/year with a reputation of being a 'party school'.

And there's no doubt that it could not have this reputation with more lenient policing than you'll see anywhere else. Certainly moreso than the policing in the inner city ghetto a mile away.

I've seen campus police consistently do nothing over drug possession issues that would, without question get jail time anywhere else in the city.

The dissonance is disturbing to me.

[daurnimator]

The University of Melbourne in Australia has a similar carry over. The majority of the university is on crown land, in an arrangement where most state laws do not apply (however federal law does). The state police have a standing invitation to go on campus if it's in reply to a "violent crime", but otherwise should never be there. However... the university does not have it's own police force: they just have clueless Wilson's Security personnel like any normal industrial site.

[ajdlinux]

I've heard things along the lines of "most state laws do not apply (however federal law does)" before, but never with a citation. Pretty sure that's just urban legend.

[daurnimator]

> Pretty sure that's just urban legend.

It might be. I just had a look around for a citation and didn't find much. However I do recall a law student finding something in the university by-laws about it (however that shouldn't overrule state law... unless it does). I found http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/UWSLawRw/2002/3.html but the University of Melbourne seems to be victorian crown land (since at least 2000 http://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/domino/Web_Notes/LDMS/PubP...) rather than commonwealth crown land. I don't know enough about property and title in Victoria to make a call here.

[ajdlinux]

There's still one relic of this in England: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_University_Constabul...

(AFAIK, the regular police don't have any jurisdictional limits stopping them from acting within university premises, but the University of Cambridge can appoint its own additional officers.)

[kdelok]

I think the CU constabulary are largely ceremonial nowadays. The Proctors are still responsible for a bunch of disciplinary things, but probably not legal matters (more like exam rules, plagiarism and keeping a vehicle in Cambridge).