Harvard Adding Campus Security Cameras in Reaction to Brown Shooting

”We continually assess our security infrastructure and make updates, as necessary, to enhance safety and improve emergency response”

Posted by Mike LaChance Saturday, August 1, 2026 at 01:00pm 1 Comment

It sounds like they already have a system like this in place; they’re just expanding it.

Campus Reform reports:

Harvard ramps up security camera initiative following Brown shooting and anti-Israel campus unrest

Harvard University plans to add security cameras near academic buildings and undergraduate residences following a December 2025 shooting at Brown University.

Harvard publicly presented the camera expansion as a safety and emergency response measure. However, an internal email obtained by The Harvard Crimson indicates that administrators also plan to use the cameras to help enforce rules governing protests and other uses of university property.

Faculty of Arts and Sciences spokesperson James M. Chisholm told The Crimson that Harvard plans to add cameras near academic buildings and undergraduate residential areas.

”We continually assess our security infrastructure and make updates, as necessary, to enhance safety and improve emergency response,” Chisholm said.

Chisholm said Harvard regularly replaces older cameras and selectively installs new equipment as part of its continuing security assessments.

In an April 30 email obtained by The Crimson, Dean of Student Services Michael P. Burke told members of the Student Services Undergraduate Advisory Board that administrators believed the cameras would address “security concerns such as we saw at Brown University.”

Burke also wrote that the cameras could support “crime investigation and possibly even campus use rules enforcement.”

Following months of anti-Israel protests, including a 20-day encampment in Harvard Yard, Harvard implemented campus-use regulations across the university back in 2024. The policies limit unauthorized encampments, amplified sound, chalking, signs, demonstrations that block entrances, and other activities that disrupt access to university buildings and facilities.