How Can We Keep This Community Safe?

Last fall, President Jon Gering sent an email to the community explaining the need for campus patrols. To the best of our knowledge, it is to this day the only specific reasoning given for why campus patrols are needed right now. We agree that the safety issues listed by the president should be addressed. However, we disagree that police patrols are the best approach. Here, we provide some specific alternative responses to each concern that we believe would be more effective than campus patrols.

*** We want to be very clear that there are times when police intervention is appropriate. We don’t mean to say that police don’t play an essential role in keeping our community safe. They do. Rather, we are pointing out that patrolling this campus in particular does not address the current safety concerns of this community. There are, however, many other effective ways in which police have and can contribute to this community's safety. For example, in his email, the president listed that police help manage events, address Title IX concerns and respond to crises. These are valuable contributions, and none of them are achieved through general campus patrols.

“Two new officers are familiarizing themselves with our campus layout and buildings so that they are prepared to respond in an emergency”

There are routinely new EMTs and firefighters who also ought to familiarize themselves with the campus. Rather than having them all do patrols to familiarize themselves, what if we had a day every so often when students gave tours of campus to all emergency teams? That seems like it could be a more effective way of helping folks familiarize themselves with our campus while building relationships with students, than patrols.

“We are trying to reduce personal property violations. In the last few months, Bethel students have experienced loosened lug nuts on automobile wheels, syphoning of gasoline from automobiles, and car break-ins”

Alumni will tell you, this is not the first time such things have happened in the Bethel parking lots. However, increasing police presence indefinitely is not traditionally the campus’s response. A savvy criminal may just loosen lugnuts (or siphon gas) when there is no patrol car in the parking lot. A few cameras however could be much more effective in preventing and catching a lug nut loosener.

“A few nights ago, the doors were ripped off the washing machines in Haury Hall”

This is at best misleading, and at worst false. Prior to the president's email, this incident was explained to students in Haury as a situation in which the door of the washing machine was broken such that it would not unlock when a student needed to retrieve their clothing. A student accidentally broke the door attempting to open it. It was a singular washing machine, and did not happen again. Regardless, police aren’t allowed to patrol in residence halls, so they can’t address concerns like this one.

“We would like to eliminate unauthorized access to crawl spaces in both Memorial Hall and the Administration Building. The most recent incursion occurred two weeks ago and resulted in a student falling into the Human Resources Office”

We are unsure if these spaces are locked. Either way, some hefty locks would likely deter some delinquent students. Having officers patrolling in public spaces, however, is not going to prevent students from exploring these secluded spaces in the middle of the night (a long-time tradition at Bethel College). Again, cameras on these entrances would be much more effective deterrents. In addition, we spoke to the very student who fell into the Human Resources Office. It turns out that the student reported the incident that same night, and maintenance cleaned up the mess before it inconvenienced anyone. No police intervention was necessary.

“We would also like to eliminate unauthorized access to buildings after they have been locked for the evening”

Would this mean police have keys to Bethel buildings, and are supposed to walk them after they have been locked to ensure nobody is in them? Again, it seems that a few cameras on entrances would be a much more effective response to this concern.

“We would like to prevent further instances of graffiti and property vandalism”

To the best of our knowledge, vandalism has not been a frequent occurrence at Bethel College. And, having police randomly patrol the campus likely isn't effective or efficient for deterring a vandal. Again, cameras are likely more effective, and so is building community buy-in. If someone really wants to vandalize a space, it is hard to stop them from doing it, and to catch them. It is simply impossible to surveil every spot on campus.

“Hanging of banners and signs on buildings without permission”

We are not sure what this is referring to, but it may be concerning last spring when BC CJP hung a banner from the Ad building that said “We Want Peace”. It wasn’t harmful to anyone, and despite there being pictures and videos of students hanging it up, nobody faced any repercussions. This seems like a rather benign concern to merit the presence of police, and something that is bound to happen on college campuses.

“Use of marijuana in the softball dugouts”

The use of marijuana has been an occurrence at Bethel College for generations. We are unsure why police are now the appropriate or necessary response. It has been proven time and time again that police and the criminal justice system are not the best way to deal with the use of marijuana.

We would like to add a few final thoughts. The unique power of the police, that CAs or any other campus authority don’t have, is the ability to immediately restrain or arrest someone. Bethel employees can and have walked Bethel students to the courthouse to have them booked, but police can immediately restrain and arrest dangerous students. None of the crimes and violations listed by the president are violent crimes. Do they really need that immediate police response in the form of patrols?

Second, perhaps the intent is to generally deter criminals by creating a space that is intimidating for them via the presence of police. If that is the case, is that really the kind of environment we want? One that relies on intimidation for safety? It seems like there are better approaches to prevent the crimes and misbehaviors listed above in this small community.

Finally, as evidenced by the concerns listed by the president, violent crime is very uncommon at BC, especially in public spaces. Many students biggest safety concerns aren’t listed on the president’s list because they are crimes that happen behind closed doors, including sexual assault. Campus patrols do not address such concerns.

Changing campus culture, providing resources and education, however, can.

BC CJP