News
FOURTH ESTATE
11 Close encounters of the police kind Nov. 11, 2013
ALEXA ROGERS STAFF WRITER Students are walking to their dorm coming home from a bar. They had a couple beers and they are 21. Can they be detained for public intoxication? What are the limits? What are the police looking for?
(JENNY KRASHIN/FOURTH ESTATE)
Mason Chief of Police Eric Heath’s goals include increasing effective communication within the university.
Police look to enhance relationship with campus community ALEXA ROGERS STAFF WRITER The Mason Police Department is undergoing a makeover. In July, Mason hired Eric Heath as the new Chief of Police. Bringing with him his experience in the police departments at the University of Chicago and the University of Arkansas, Heath hopes to provide a fresh perspective to the department. “[My goal is for the police] to have much better interactions with everyone we encounter, whether it’s faculty, staff or students,” Heath said. In his first semester on campus, Heath introduced several new ideas to help improve the department’s presence at Mason. One of Heath’s initiatives focuses on improving the police department’s image through effective communication. Sargent Bruce Jackson feels “community policing” already has priority at Mason. “Community policing is supposed to be getting to know your community, learning from your community, working with your community…that’s what university police departments are all about,” Jackson said. While developing their communication with the community, the department is also working to improve their interactions with students by partnering with Student Government. Starting in early October, the two organizations initiated monthly meetings in which they discuss any outstanding issues
brought to Student Government by the student body. A member of Student Government also resides on the police department’s panel in charge of hiring new officers to give the department a student’s perspective on the candidates. Heath said that students will be a valuable resource in helping to determine if the candidates would make a good police officer and be a good fit for Mason. Despite these efforts, Raj Panth, a sophomore IT major who had an alcohol-related encounter with the Mason Police earlier this school year, believes that the Mason Police need to do a better job of accommodating students on campus. “They should be more catered towards student safety than prevention,” Panth said. “Warnings don’t create negativity. They help create responsibility.” While Heath wants the department to foster better communication with students, he wants the community to realize that their job is their number one priority. “My goal wasn’t to treat students better or one segment of the community better, it was to treat everyone better,” Heath said. “[We need to] provide the most professional and courteous service as possible.” Jackson agrees, emphasizing the difficulty of always having positive encounters. “I would like people to understand that we have a hard job to do sometimes… we can’t please all of the people at one
time,” Jackson said. Heath’s one piece of advice for students that encounter the police is to simply be respectful. “Be respectful, be courteous, cooperate with investigations that are going on,” Heath said. “If you are the subject of that investigation, cooperate and be truthful.” With the community in mind, Heath also wants to improve security technology to accommodate Mason’s always-evolving campus. Heath hopes to introduce a program called Comm Stat Analysis, a crime analysis plan that would help predict crimes before they happen and turn the department into a more proactive force. According to Jackson, security improvements in the past have helped the department grow to the force it is today. “All of these [changes] have dramatically changed how we can respond to our community in the best way,” Jackson said. “No matter what the need of the community is.” As he helps to implement the new changes to the department, Heath is starting to see Mason as a home. “I really like George Mason,” Heath said. “I like the institution, the diversity of the student body and the things that we’re challenged to do on a daily basis…I love being in law enforcement on a college campus because it really feels like you can interact more with the community.”
Chief Heath said that student safety comes first when encountering any drinking situation, whether the students are under or of legal age to drink. Officers examine whether or not the individual poses a risk to himself or herself by looking for behaviors such as difficulty standing or keeping their balance. These behaviors could lead to more dangerous actions, such as stepping out into the road, which Heath feels is a very serious danger on Mason’s busy campus. Based on the individual’s level of intoxication, according to Heath, medical assistance could be called or the individual could be taken into custody as a way to protect their safety. “Someone’s safety is paramount to how we respond to those types of situations,” Heath said. Students are at a party off-campus. The police show up at the house to respond to a noise complaint. How should students react? In this situation, Mason police would not typically be the first to respond to a party. However, according to Heath, the responding department may call Mason police as a way to address the situation and refer students to Student Conduct instead of being arrested. Heath said the best way to respond in this situation is to listen to what the police department tells you. Escape methods, such as running away from the party, can create mass panic among students and will end up drawing more attention from law enforcement. Heath said that listening to the officers often results in a simple notification or warning of certain behaviors, such as loud music. “Listen to what you’re being instructed. Be honest and provide information to the individuals requesting it and you’ll be fine,” Heath said. Two students are walking on the road and are approached by Mason police officers for “suspicious behavior.” What are the rights of the students? What are the rights of the officers? According to Heath, “anyone in the law enforcement capacity, if they see something suspicious or have responsible suspicion to stop and ask somebody some questions, they have the right to do so as long as they can justify it and document what they witnessed.” However, how officers react can be based on a number of factors, such as time of day, current crime trends in the area or any reasonable suspicions the officers may have in these situations.