#CopsOffCampus #DismantleUWPD #CancelTheContracts

By signing on to this document, you are endorsing the following statement:

Police reform efforts—over decades, on and off campus—have failed. Policing is rooted in violence against Black, Native, and other targeted communities. We call for investing in and expanding our safety and well-being beyond policing.

As a first step, we demand that the University of Washington (UW):

1) Dismantle and permanently close the UW Police Department. UW Seattle spends over $8 million per year on campus cops alone (this does not include Harborview Hospital or other campuses). In June 2021, all Black rank-and-file police officers filed multi-million dollar damage claims due to UWPD's "unbearable racism". There is no restructuring, task force, training, or reform that will guarantee the safety of our BIPOC, immigrant, and transgender students, workers, and community members. UWPD's presence is a public danger.

2) Cancel all contracts with law enforcement organizations, including the Bothell Police Department. When President Cauce stated in 2020 that UW does not have a contract with the Seattle Police Department, she failed to reveal the formal contract that UW has to pay the city of Bothell Police Department to patrol its campus. University monies should not grow municipal police department budgets.

We do not accept racialized police violence as inevitable. This petition is part of a national movement to get Cops Off Campus and call for our schools and workplaces to cease collaboration with police. This is a necessary first step to meeting demands from UW Seattle Black Student Union, UW Bothell Collegiate Community Transitions, and decades of unmet demands from students, faculty, and staff.

We invite UW leadership to join the national movement and be on the right side of history.

(To sign this statement as an organization, please visit: https://tinyurl.com/dismantleUWPD)