Frederick Police Chief Addresses Students in Hood College Classroom

Frederick City Police Chief Kevin Meyer sat at the head of a classroom table at Hood College on a recent Thursday morning.

Meyer was not wearing his uniform while he spoke with students in Dr. Gracia Lopez’s Police and Community Relations class. He discussed his department’s riding-along program, describing how officers handled a hit-and-run and arrested a person alleged to be suffering from substance abuse. Many students expressed surprise at the volume of paperwork involved in those interactions.

Lopez, an assistant professor of law and criminal justice, had presented hypothetical police encounters for the group to analyze. Students debated how law enforcement should respond to each scenario. Meyer then explained the specific policies and procedures that guide officer action, including several edge cases that are not always covered in textbooks.

Haleema Hossain, a senior majoring in pre-law, described her initial discomfort with police due to her immigrant background. She said the class changed her view of the department. Hossain referenced the Frederick ICE incident that occurred on Route 40 in September. Protestors had tried to physically stop immigration enforcement agents from entering a home. Video shared by Hagerstown Rapid Response showed ICE agents driving vehicles at protestors and using batons. Local police positioned themselves between the groups, a move some residents criticized as siding with the federal agency. Meyer said the situation was unwinnable because ICE is a law enforcement entity that does not need local assistance to act. He stated that police are there to support the community, not to help ICE.

Jack Welsh, a junior at Hood College, plans to enter law enforcement. He expressed a dislike for ICE, noting that federal agents often have higher authority than trained local officers despite sometimes being less prepared. Welsh said he understood why police acted as they did in September to protect agents exiting the home. Dr. Lopez said the session allowed students to ask difficult questions in a safe environment. She noted that her class aims to provide students with multiple perspectives on policing.

Laura Bennett, who works with the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Just Journalism, offered a critical view of the class structure. She suggested that students seek perspectives from people outside the academic setting to balance their learning. Bennett pointed to a 2022 review by the National Institute of Justice that examined more than 70 studies on body cameras. That review gave body cameras a no-effects rating for their impact on use of force, assaults on officers, and arrests. Bennett argued that while training is important, it does not always change overall police behavior or how officers act on the street. She warned that written policies do not always match the practices used in the field.

Lopez said she invited Meyer into the classroom to provide a voice from inside the profession. She does not hold a police officer’s perspective herself, despite her research with victims and perpetrators in the U.S. and Latin America. Meyer said he wanted his command staff to participate in the course. He aimed to reach students interested in federal careers and show them a local alternative. He described the experience as beneficial for students to hear from a practicing officer about how academic concepts play out in reality.

Meyer said he is excited for his staff to continue this engagement. He wants the public to see police as human beings and fellow members of the community.

The next scheduled class session is set for later this semester, where students will review recent incident reports from the Frederick Police Department.