COLUMN: To Serve and Protect

From Adam Scioli "The Old Boys' Club," Fall '94 From Adam Scioli "The Old Boys' Club," Fall '94While there are those who continue to refer to the University Police as "guards" or "rent-a-cops," the fact of the matter remains that the men and women in blue are dedicated to serve and protect the safety of all of our students. Balancing the two extremes takes a unique personality. Not every officer out of the academy is prepared or willing to endure the emotional tests that go along with the territory. Jumping from a rowdy fraternity party to an armed robbery call is not something that police officers on most college campuses expect to encounter, but at Penn, it's all in a days work. Personally, I have come to know and interact with a number of University Police officers. I met most of them through working at Smokey Joe's. The officers would drive by on 40th and wave to me while I was checking IDs at the door. Eventually, I met those officers on my walks home and was introduced to others while writing a column. To date I can honestly call a number of them my friends and have had occasion to socialize with them on their off evenings. Through my exposure to the University police, I have gained a strong understanding of their backgrounds and training experience. These are the type of men and women that all students can depend upon for protection. Their responses are always without needless question or delay, and their understanding upon arrival is unmatched by even the city's finest, of which many of you who have dialed "911" might already be painfully aware. Dialing "511" or "573-3333" taps into a corps of trained officers who are never more than a few blocks away from your campus address. The University Police officers will go above and beyond their normal duty to ensure the safety of the students. All one need do is ask and the police will do their very best to accommodate the pressing concerns of the victimized, threatened, or simply curious student. Instead of questioning our police officers and criticizing them for their professional judgement in handling campus disturbances (i.e. last April's theft of the Daily Pennsylvanian), we should be asking what we can do to make our dangerous environment safer. We should be lauding the officers for their instincts and attentiveness to the streets. The more we question the actions of the police officers, the more administrators breathe down their necks. Soon we could find ourselves in a situation where the police are afraid to act upon their instincts and intuition -- afraid to act until it's too late. We simply cannot afford to have the police officers who are there to protect us fear administrative reprimand for doing their jobs. We'd be hard pressed to find a more accessible force of officers. It's not difficult to locate an officer when you need one -- the Walnut Street mini station, the main station at the tip of Locust Walk, bike patrol, vehicle patrol, undercover, etc. I've never walked home from work without spotting a University Police car, even at 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. The relief that we feel when we see a Campus Police vehicle on our desolate street-walk home can thankfully be measured up to the sinking-gut feeling that the would-be assailant experiences as he spots that same police car. Get to know the police officers who are protecting you. Give them personalities to match with the faces they look out for every day. Understand the nature of their jobs and listen to them even when it's something as silly as not riding your bike on the walk. Act like sniveling rich kids who are "paying their salaries" as the argument has so often gone, and expect to be treated as such. Then, don't be surprised when you receive a citation and end up in a file on the JIO's desk. Most importantly, realize that our University Police are colorblind when it comes to protecting the students. It is inappropriate and unjust for students, black or white, to jump on the Rodney King bandwagon. Nothing could be further from the truth than to say that our officers operate in an unprofessional or overly-aggressive fashion. Don't jeopardize student safety through false accusations of racial harassment or prejudicial preference. Rather, pull together and realize that a mutual respect between the officers and the students bolsters the security and well being of everyone who has to walk the streets of the campus. Adam Scioli is a senior Political Science major from Rockville, Maryland. The Old Boys' Club appears alternate Wednesdays.