Designating Chautauqua Institution’s security staff as peace officers likely would not have prevented Hadi Matar of New Jersey from stabbing Salman Rushdie multiple times on the institution’s Amphitheater stage.

The way security was deployed, Matar would likely still have reached the stage to carry out his attack. So, preventing such incidents really is a Chautauqua Institution matter.

But, we do agree with Assemblyman Andrew Goodell, R-Jamestown, and state Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, that legislation previously passed by the state Legislature and vetoed by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo designating the institution’s security as peace officers should be revisited in the next legislative session and, if approved, by signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Goodell and Borrello have proposed allowing Chautauqua’s security team to be classified as peace officers, which would allow them to make arrests and have direct access to emergency radio systems. Given the number of people in the institution at any given time, such a designation makes sense.

In our view, a special session isn’t needed because the institution’s season will be over by the time the legislature could be convened, the legislation passed and then signed.

But, the legislature should act early enough in the next legislative session that Chautauqua Institution officials can plan on enhanced security, provided by the institution’s contracted security team, for the 2023 Chautauqua season.