This weekend on my campus, a student went to check on someone in the next dorm after hearing cries for help. It seems domestic violence and/or attempted sexual assault had occurred. 12 police officers, both from the New London Police Department and from campus safety showed up on campus after a different bystander called 911, and failed to calm down the victim. They also arrested the student who had come to help the assault victim (the initial police log said that the sole charge was Resisting Arrest, although the NLPD’s preliminary press release on FaceBook says that the charge was for Interfering with Police).
The general recommendation on this site is always to call an actual police department, not campus safety, if you don’t want a case (particularly intimate partner violence) swept under the rug. In this instance, a group of police officers, mostly from the city and not the college itself, reported to the scene; I can’t think of any way that campus police acting alone could have handled this case any worse than the municipal police. This is an extreme instance, but it makes me wonder: is it, in general, actually better to involve real police departments rather than campus safety, as per CC conventional wisdom? Is there evidence that government police departments normally do a better job (although I have no idea what sort of evidence could be used other than anecdata)?
The student and the NLPD both have posts about this on their FaceBook pages if you want to see a primary source for this particular case, but I figured it would be more appropriate to post a news article.
At some colleges, “campus safety” is actual police, while at other colleges, it is not. That can be important to know if you want (or do not want) the police involved.
In general, serious crime is a police matter, but if the police department happens to be of low quality, then it is more likely to handle the issue poorly. (And if you cannot trust the police to do their job properly, you are more vulnerable to both typical criminals and police errors.)
When police are called to a situation you do not tell them how to do their job. If the police had left without getting information from the victim they would be accused of not having done anything to apprehend the assailant.
No one can answer a blanket question like this as stated some campuses have there own forces, some use local forces and here it sounds like both responded. Apparently college police and local police were involved and the accused assailant and the alleged victim were both drunk and as most have experienced, tensions can escalate. I think the college kid who called the police did the right thing as he would not have known what was actually going on in the room. Once the police arrived he should have left after he gave his statement or moved away and let the police handle the two drunk students that were fighting.
In most cases, campus safety would contact the local PD department, if it appears a crime has occurred that would lead to possible prosecution, such as sexual assault.
Even colleges that have their own PD departments, don’t have investigators, forensic specialist (CSI for the Win!) or prosecutors. They may deal with rowdy students, stolen items, etc., but anything that may lead to a criminal case, would involved the local police department.
Of course, sometimes they don’t involve the local PD, when they should, which usually leads to the scandals we read about in the news. However, it’s not the policy to “cover-up” crimes.
Alot of kids live in a dorm, I imagine when the call came in that there was fighting after midnight on a weekend in a dorm, the police felt it best not to have one or two people only respond. I can understand this.
I disagree that regular police handle investigations better. For the murder case I was involved with the campus police did a much better job on the scene, but the jurisdiction is limited for the campus police- no jail, no DA, no judge. At some point a crime needs to be turned over to a police authority to prosecute.
True that things don’t always go smoothly, but there were “real police” that responded to this call. 3 got arrested or ticketed it sounds like. The two that were fighting and the kid that called the police but got himself involved. I can only imagine trying to break up a fight in a dorm…not. I’m sure all the parents involved are just thrilled…sarcasm intended. I remember my third lived across the hall in a dorm freshman year where kids were fighting. The police came and my son and his roommate stayed in their room, after the police got everyone sorted out and the MIPs written and whatever else happened they did knock on my son’s dorm room and ask he and his roommates if they had seen anything or what they heard. I keep envisioning those narrow dorm hallways and students milling about and I shudder. My guess is they all get off with some lawyering up if none of them want to press charges against another or the police except if either of the students that were drunk is underage and they will will end up with an MIP probably no matter what.
It’s also possible that those police officers had spent a few hours breaking up parties and were in no mood when they got to the dorm to deal with more drunk and aggressive kids. Who knows. It’s an interesting story.
Was this “campus police” an actual police department?
When I went to college, the campus police was an actual police department. Those arrested by the campus police on suspicion of committing crimes could be prosecuted by the DA, go through trial in court, and go to jail or prison if convicted.
I subscribe to the normal CC opinion here. Full time career city police departments may be better trained overall. But as was stated previously this is almost an impossible question to answer. A great topic to raise for discussion but not one for an answer.
