You hinted at the UCD pepper spray incident (which was under orders of the school chancellor, but nobody remembers that and she still has her job).

The campus police can and will shoot you. They are a real-deal police department. Most of the university shootings are ended by campus police (usually shooting the gunman).

However you sort of hinted at the fact that most campus police are a lot more lenient than city/state police. This is true in my experience -- guessing, but probably because they know who they are largely working with. Students. Drunk students, students doing dumb things, etc. Not hardened criminals most of the time. I'd probably step to far, but I'd wager campus police is a much safer line of work for an officer as well (no flip of the coin if the guy you pulled over for speeding will pull a gun on you, etc).