Women Against Private Police (WAPP) was an organization based in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, that focused on opposing the creation of a

private police Private police or special police are law enforcement bodies that are owned or controlled (or owned and controlled) by non-governmental entities. Additionally, the term can refer to an off-duty police officer while working for a private entity, ...

force at

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

History

Women Against Private Police was founded on April 3, 2019. The organization was started by a group of women who live near the Johns Hopkins campuses in Baltimore. The group formed after the

Maryland General Assembly The Maryland General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland that convenes within the State House in Annapolis. It is a bicameral body: the upper chamber, the Maryland Senate, has 47 representatives and the lower chamb ...

passed a bill allowing Johns Hopkins to own and operate an armed police force with full police powers under Maryland law that has jurisdiction over Baltimore campuses and private residential neighborhoods in the vicinity of Hopkins properties. WAPP was a ballot issue committee registered for the purpose of launching a petition drive. If the petition drive had been successful, voters in 2020 would have been given a choice to decide whether or not a private corporation should be allowed to operate a police force with jurisdiction over public streets. WAPP would have had to gather nearly 70,000 signatures in just over 2 months in order to place the issue on the November 2020 ballot. The State Board of Elections issued an advanced determination that the issue could not be brought to a referendum vote because it contains spending measures, an exemption to the referendum provision under the state constitution. WAPP contested this opinion and filed suit in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court. The ACLU and the Public Justice Center represented WAPP in this matter. The Court dismissed the suit on grounds that it was not ripe, permitting WAPP to refile its lawsuit if it could achieve the requisite number of petition signatures by May 31.

References

External links

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Meet The “Women Against Private Police”
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Hot Air ''Hot Air'' is a conservative American political blog. It is written by the pseudonymous Allahpundit, Ed Morrissey, John Sexton, and Jazz Shaw. Hot Air was founded by Michelle Malkin, a conservative author and blogger, in 2006, taking over '' ...

'' {{authority control 2019 disestablishments in Maryland 2019 establishments in Maryland Defunct organizations based in Maryland Civil rights organizations in the United States History of women in Maryland Johns Hopkins University Organizations based in Baltimore Organizations established in 2019 Police oversight organizations Political advocacy groups in the United States Political organizations disestablished in 2019 Private police in the United States Government watchdog groups in the United States