In April 2019, the Bethel College Board of Directors adopted the following vision statement: “Bethel College graduates students who increase human flourishing (shalom) in society by owning and enacting their faith, demonstrating compassion for the powerless, engaging in critical thought and bringing value to the workplace.”

Fast forward to one year ago, near the start of the fall 2024 semester. The Bethel campus was experiencing a series of disruptive events. Some were petty crime: breaking into cars, siphoning gas. A few, however, were clearly intended to threaten individuals or groups: loosening lug nuts on a car, vandalizing appliances in a residence hall, misogynistic graffiti scrawled in public spaces.

Taken altogether, these incidents disrupted the “shalom” of the Bethel campus. Members of a community cannot flourish when they are concerned about their safety or the security of their belongings. For that reason, college leaders reached out to the North Newton, Kan., police to request an expansion of their normal drive-throughs to include foot patrols as well.

This touched a nerve among Bethel stakeholders. Students organized protests and other campus engagement around the issue; board members received scores of emails and letters. Some alumni threatened to withhold contributions or to discourage their children from attending Bethel.

More recently, AW writer Sarah Augustine devoted part of her August column to questioning the propriety of police on campus, and letter writers added their comments in the September issue.

For these reasons, we are grateful to Anabaptist World for giving Bethel College this space to explain why we feel police patrols are consistent with our vision of shalom and our long-standing commitment to Anabaptist principles.

First: From their beginnings, Anabaptists have acknowledged the jurisdiction of civil authorities, while trying to hold them accountable for their conduct. That is what Bethel is endeavoring to do with its memo of understanding with the North Newton Police De­partment (bethelks.edu/consumer-information/#h-health-and-safety). It describes a model of community policing that has long been practiced on college campuses across the country.

The concept is simple: When police are a consistent and integral presence in a community, rather than an armed reactionary force, violence diminishes and criminal behavior is deterred. It is one of the pillars of President Barack Obama’s “Task Force on 21st Century Policing” report and is explicitly the opposite of the militarization of police forces taking place today.

Second: Bethel and other Mennonite campuses have always relied on their local police to come when they call. On average, North Newton police respond to 150 calls per year from land lines, safety towers and cell phones on campus. Though many are benign — being locked out of buildings or cars, being worried about a friend, seeing unknown animals — we have always been grateful for the prompt attention of those same authorities in more serious situations as well.

Third: In the critiques of Bethel’s current policy, much has been made of the diversity of our student body and the poor track record U.S. police forces have had with people of color. This was a concern of our board as well, over 30% of whom are in that category. We were encouraged, then, when Bethel’s Student Senate conducted a poll of student attitudes this spring in an effort to quantify their opinions on campus security. An impressive 38% of the student body responded, and 87% of them said they felt safe on Bethel’s campus. By a 2-to-1 margin, students of color supported police patrols. In every question directly addressing police patrols, a 10- to 15-point plurality of the overall student body favored continuing the practice.

Fourth, and finally: Augustine and many others have urged restorative justice as an alternative to community policing. This misapprehends what we are attempting to accomplish at Bethel. Community policing is a proven strategy to deter unwanted behaviors, not criminalize them after the fact. Community policing can and should go hand in hand with restorative justice, when the shalom of a community is broken.

It is fair to say that members of the Bethel College community are not of one mind on this topic. So we can appreciate the fervor of those who’ve criticized the choices we’ve made. They are owning and enacting their faith. What we ask of them, and of all who wish to support Bethel, is a respect for our commitment to keep our students safe and flourishing, in ways we believe are consistent with our Anabaptist principles.

Wynn Goering is chair of the Bethel College Board of Directors, a Bethel alumnus and a former moderator of Western District Conference of Mennonite Church USA.