The university guard has no real rights, e.g. it cannot use direct coercion measures – he told PAP insp. dr Mariusz Sokołowski, former spokesman for KGP, security expert at the University of Warsaw. He added that for him a guardian of the University of Warsaw, who threw himself at the aggressor with bare hands, is a hero.
On Wednesday, a 22-year-old student of the Faculty of Law of the University of Warsaw, struggling with an ax, killed a 53-year-old porter who closed the door to the Maximum auditorium. The man also seriously hurt a 39-year-old guard who came to the woman with help. “I think that the hero of this tragic situation is a guard who threw himself with bare hands at the armed man, a determined man who is in amok,” said insp. Sokołowski.
The expert assessed that although today many people point to the participation of other people in the arrest of a young man, it was thanks to the guardian of the guard that there was no attack on other people. As he pointed out, e.g. the SOP officer came when the guard had already overpowered and held the man, and then other university guards also came. “He is a huge hero, because he took intervention without having gas, a stick, a stun gun or weapon” – emphasized Sokołowski and explained that the university guard operates on the basis of university regulations and has no right to use direct coercion measures.
He pointed to the paradox, which, on the one hand, universities enjoy autonomy and without their explicit consent, the police cannot appear in their area, so the university is to ensure the safety of people staying in its area, and on the other hand – it turns out that people responsible for this, who have strictly police functions, do not have any rights to deal with their duties.
“These are university employees, they do not have the status of a uniformed service, although they have their uniforms,” the expert pointed out. He added that one of their tasks is, for example, controlling who enters the university, but they have no right to legitimize anyone. “They can at most nicely ask to show an identity card,” he noted.
Another task is to observe monitoring at the university. Mariusz Sokołowski set an example that if, for example, there is a disruption of order in the campus, they can only draw adventurers, and if this does not work, they can “like any other citizen to put, do not stop – because these are two different legal concepts – the perpetrator and call the police or the city guard to keep her activities.”
The security expert reminded the events of last year, when Propalestine protests were ongoing at the University of Warsaw, “which were related to the disruption of order and the destruction of property”. When the students blocked the entrance to the campus, the guards did not intervene, only the police called by the rector.
“Even employees of security companies have greater powers than the university guard,” summed up Mariusz Sokołowski. He reminded that in the past there was already a discussion about increasing her rights, e.g. after tragic events at the Charles University in Czech Prague on December 21, 2023, when 16 people died in the shooting (including the perpetrator) and 24 were injured.
“At that time, it began to wonder, since something like this happened there, what is the probability that it may also apply to our country and that it may be worth considering what you can do to increase security at universities” – mentioned Sokołowski. “The wave of discussion swept, nothing was done” – he added.
The second time a discussion about safety in universities and increasing the rights of university order services was fought last year, after June riots at universities related to the mentioned anti -izrael protests around the world, but – as Sokołowski noted – also then ended in words. In his opinion, there was no political will to change the law in this direction.
“Perhaps the last incident will make decision -makers come to the conclusion that it is worth equipping the university guard with additional powers, allowing them to protect their own and protect other people” – he emphasized. He added that, however, it should be realized that these additional permissions will not eliminate completely different undesirable events, but “can minimize the effects as well as the risk of their occurrence.”
Mira Suchodolska (PAP)
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