TROY — Administrators at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute hired 24 Troy police officers at the cost of more than $10,000 to handle crowd control as students protested during an alumni event last fall.

Officers taped the Oct. 13 protest and handed the footage over to RPI officials, who later used it to help identify protest leaders who subsequently faced disciplinary actions, according to the students who were charged.

Police have for weeks refused to answer the Times Union's questions about the incident.

RPI later used the videos to bring disciplinary charges against two students involved in the protest, though the charges were later dropped. The protest, which occurred while the school was hosting an alumni fundraising event during homecoming week, was in response to RPI's effort to consolidate its control of the Student Union — a move that has drawn protests from students and alumni.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), a Philadelphia-based nonprofit group that promotes civil liberties on college campuses, reported the taping and the cost of the extra security last month.

RPI spokeswoman Richie Hunter said hiring Troy police officers for major university events such as hockey games is standard procedure, and that the university’s director of public safety regularly works with outside law enforcement agencies.

“We were aware that there would be protesters at the campaign launch and this was taken into consideration during the security planning,” Hunter wrote in an email. “We did not ask the Troy Police Department to film the protest.”

Troy police did not respond when asked why they taped the protest, how they determined how many officers to assign to the protest, whether it was an overtime assignment, if there were specific threats and who approved giving the footage to RPI officials.

A Troy city spokesman confirmed the invoice for the protest — which charged the school $8,171 for the 21 police officers, two sergeants and a captain, as well as a $2,042 administrative fee — was sent to RPI.

The protest was organized by Save the Union, a group of students who are against the administration's actions involving the student union.

In the 57-minute video of the protest shot by Troy police, which Save the Union posted to YouTube after obtaining through a FOIL request filed by FIRE, most of the officers are standing in a ring around the protest. The students are standing on the grass with signs, chanting at alumni attending the fundraiser. Several have cameras and are taking pictures of the police standing nearby.

The video opens with a student on a megaphone mentioning that the protest leaders had talked with an unidentified Troy police captain about ensuring that the students’ First Amendment rights were respected.

The video pans back and forth and occasionally zooms in on specific students. The officer holding the camera also appears to be looking for potential threats, zooming in on a group of students briefly gathered around a backpack and a student who is standing by himself, fidgeting with his hands.

The school initially tried to separate protesters from the fundraiser by putting up a fence. Protesters eventually broke past that barricade to get closer.

Students Michael Gardner and Bryan Johns were informed they had been identified in photographs, videos and news reports as having led the protest. RPI sent letters informing them that their conduct — which allegedly included trespassing, violation of a policy and failure to comply — were grounds for disciplinary action, according to past Times Union stories.

Gardner said he found it ridiculous that the university was worried about a “group of nerds.”

“I remember being filmed and trying to figure out where our (boundaries) were,” he said. “Honestly, I’m disappointed in RPI, that they thought the student protest was going to cause unrest.”