In an article published Friday by The Guardian, five University of Michigan students who had previously participated in pro-Palestinian protests reported being surveilled on- and off-campus by people alleged to be undercover investigators working for City Shield Security Services, a Detroit-based security company. The surveilled students told The Guardian they had been followed, eavesdropped, recorded and verbally harassed. Two students who issued public statements to The Guardian were members of Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, a pro-Palestinian student organization that was formally suspended for up to two years in January 2025.
According to a public spending report, the University paid nearly $800,000 to AmeriShield Protection Group, the parent company of City Shield Security Services, between June 2023 and September 2024. In May 2024, shortly after a solidarity encampment on the Diag organized by student protestors was removed by the University, guards from Liberty Security Group, a security firm unrelated to AmeriShield, began to monitor the Diag.
U-M alum Josiah Walker told The Guardian he had been monitored by over 30 people since last summer. In a video obtained by The Guardian, Walker confronted a man who had been recording him from a car. When Walker approached the vehicle, the man initially acted deaf and mute but subsequently spoke to Walker. In another video, the man is then seen speaking with another woman in a car. Upon being approached, the man accused Walker of threatening him and stealing his wallet…