There have been two armed robberies on or near campus in the past two weeks – an alarming fact, but one that is not totally shocking on such an urban campus. But what is alarming is the lack of information the University Police Department is willing to provide students when these and other serious crimes occur and a large number of blue light emergency phones that are not working on and near campus. UPD must address these serious problems if it wants students to feel safe and earn respect from a student body that increasingly complains that the department is not serving them.
Posting orange “Crime Alert” sheets around campus – which the University is legally obligated to do when a violent crime happens – gave students the basic facts of what transpired early Sunday morning when two students were robbed at gunpoint. But the fliers are not substitutes for timely, in-depth disclosures to students and student media. The Hatchet, the student newspaper of record on campus, was not called over the weekend, preventing us from reporting the crime in the Monday issue. And alerts were not up until a full day after the robbery occurred.
But UPD’s communication failures are not limited to failing to alert the media when there is a serious threat to students. UPD has a history of keeping The Hatchet in the dark about on-campus crime. UPD Director Dolores Stafford’s reluctance to provide details of crimes committed on campus leaves The Hatchet to frequently circumvent University Police by speaking to students involved in incidents or contacting Metropolitan Police. Contacting UPD has almost become a lost cause – details that have filled our pages have come mostly from MPD. UPD does not allow the media to contact victims of any crimes, to talk to officers who were on the scene or get updates on ongoing investigations. We at The Hatchet are solely reliant on information Stafford is comfortable divulging from written reports.
Two recent examples demonstrate UPD’s unwillingness to cooperate or non-responsiveness.
Immediately following a March 26 ecstasy bust in Fulbright Hall, Stafford would not discuss any information on the record because she said there was an ongoing investigation. Not only was MPD more than happy to give The Hatchet the information it needed, officers who oversee drug investigations also said there was no such investigation taking place. Stafford then referred all questions about the bust to MPD.
When MPD arrested a man for carjacking a University 4-RIDE van in November 2001, Stafford was forthcoming with information, but her account conflicted with several eyewitness accounts. By not allowing The Hatchet to interview or relay questions to the officer on the scene, The Hatchet had no choice but to print a story full of uncertainties. There are countless other examples through the years of student journalists at The Hatchet simply trying to get story right about crime on campus and being restrained by unreasonable UPD communication policies.
The sad state of the emergency blue lights scattered about campus has been an issue all year. UPD Assistant Director Anthony RoccoGrande says the blue lights are checked once a week to see if they are functioning properly. He added the blue lights are vital to student safety and would be a liability if one failed to operate when a student needed it.
UPD’s stance on these lights and their importance is absolutely correct. But these lights are in disrepair all over campus.
UPD needs to get its house in order. This is a call to get news to those who can report it and fix machines whose sole purpose is to keep students safe.
