Contractors accused of threatening, trailing students and using deceptive tactics; president admits conduct was ‘unacceptable’
The University of Michigan has cancelled its contracts for undercover surveillance of pro-Palestinian student groups following widespread condemnation and revelations that private investigators had been secretly monitoring students for months.
The move comes in the wake of investigation which exposed that investigators had not only followed students on and off campus, but had also engaged in threatening and confrontational behaviour. In one case, a car was reportedly driven at a student, forcing them to leap out of the way. Other incidents included impersonating people with disabilities and verbally abusing students.
“We recently learned that an employee of one of our security contractors has acted in ways that go against our values and directives,” the university’s president, Domenico Grasso, wrote in an email to students and faculty. “Going forward, we are terminating all contracts with external vendors to provide plainclothes security on campus.”
The contractors were employed by City Shield, a Detroit-based private security firm whose parent company, Ameri-Shield, received at least USD 800,000 from the university between June 2023 and September 2024. That contract formed part of more than USD 3m spent on security and consultants by the university in response to ongoing protests against Israel’s war in Gaza.
Some of the surveillance footage gathered by these investigators was used by prosecutors to charge and jail students involved in the demonstrations. The university had come under increasing criticism for its aggressive handling of the protests, and for deploying significant resources to monitor and deter student activism.
Video evidence reviewed by esteemed media organisation showed one investigator faking disabilities and accusing a student of attempted robbery when confronted. In the same incident, the man — who had pretended to be deaf and mute — appeared to call the student filming him a “special needs student”.
“What happened was disturbing, unacceptable, and unethical, and we will not tolerate it,” Grasso said in apparent reference to the incident captured on film, which sparked widespread outrage on social media and from current and former U-M students and staff.
Grasso added that the presence of the investigators had been intended to “help us keep watch over our campus and enable us to respond quickly to emergencies”. However, he stressed that “no individual or group should ever be targeted for their beliefs or affiliations”.
Katarina Keating, a PhD student who was among those under surveillance, welcomed the university’s decision to cancel the contracts, calling it “a step in the right direction”. However, she rejected the administration’s claim that students were not targeted for their affiliations. “It’s insulting,” she said. “There’s no evidence anyone aside from pro-Palestinian activists were followed.”
Keating also urged the university to go further by eliminating all non-undercover security hired in response to the protests and lifting bans placed on students involved in demonstrations.
The university has not responded to further calls for transparency around its broader surveillance practices or whether it plans to review disciplinary actions already taken against student protesters.
