Forum addresses community concerns about peace officers

The debate continued on upgrading the status of Public Safety officers last night in the Heroy Geology building, but little seemed resolved by the panel discussion and open forum.

The seven-person panel was split on the issue, with professors Dave Berg, Debra Van Ausdale and Rae Banks questioning the decision, and university spokesman Kevin Morrow, Director of Public Safety Marlene Hall, Deputy Chief of Syracuse Police Michael Heenan and Utica College professor Bruce McBride in favor of the proposal.

‘The issue is one of deadly force,’ said Dave Berg, director of executive education at the Whitman School of Management. ‘The questions that I ask is if the threat is such that we need to change the nature of Public Safety officers to use deadly force?’

Hall explained that the last few years have seen a rise in the increase of crime: since 1996, between 40 and 50 percent of armed or strong-armed robberies have occurred in the last two years. In addition, Hall said that Public Safety receives calls around two reports of weapons on campus per month, or about 23 a year.

‘We do have to be realistic in what some of the officers and students have had to contend with,’ Hall said. ‘I would love to see it where we don’t have firearms, but you can’t just go by statistics.’



The addition of a number of new powers, Hall added, bring new dangers. Pulling over vehicles and responding to domestic violence calls have added risks that she says Public Safety officers are not currently equipped to deal with.

Heenan agreed: ‘There have been cases where peace officers have been killed doing very routine parts of their jobs. You need to equip them with all the tools necessary to complete that job.’

The professors on the panel, however, were not convinced.

‘There is a disproportionate likelihood that black people will be killed by SU police (Public Safety officers),’ Banks said. ‘No one who is black will be exempt.’

Banks opposed the use of weapons unconditionally, but narrowed her criticism on the issue to the risks posed to minority students, suggesting alternatives such as increased patrols and the addition of video cameras to the campus.

‘These types of incidents do occur, and they occur along racial lines,’ she said.

Hall said in the last two years, 43 minority students have been stopped for investigation, while the number of white students increased from 149 to around 230.

Berg took issue with these numbers: ‘One of the things that bothers me is statistics, and how they’re used. The number seems smaller, but when you relate them on a percentage basis, I get a feeling that more people of color are stopped.’

The issue of deterrence was also a controversial one.

Ausdale, in particular, considered it a mistake to connect guns with deterrence of crime.

‘The notion that having an armed officer on campus will somehow deter crime on campus is misguided,’ Ausdale said.

Hall, however, spoke otherwise.

‘We feel it does help with crime prevention. When the word gets out, the bad guys look somewhere else,’ she said.

McBride said the more important issue was response time: the addition of guns would be a trade-off between quality of life, and a faster response in a time of emergency.

‘Weapons do not deter crime, agreed, but what is the response time?’ he asked.

David Potter, a professor and member of the University Senate, summed up the comments of many in the audience when he explained that he was reluctant to change the dynamics of campus life by arming Public Safety, but was concerned for the safety of officers should they be put in new and more dangerous situations.

‘As abstract as it is, the symbolic issues of it are very important,’ Potter said. ‘The presence of firearms is only for reasonable safety.’

Chancellor Kenneth A. Shaw was expected to deliver a decision around Feb. 15, but has not yet endorsed nor opposed the proposal. According to Morrow, he is out of town until next week.





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