Some students, administration, police differ on… Patrolling the dorms
By Mike Barajas
September 4, 2008
During the year, every student in a residence hall will at one point or another see an Ohio University Police officer patrolling what has become an everyday part of their living space, whether it’s hallway, stairwell or lobby.
OUPD Lt. Steve Noftz, one such officer, recently stated that frequent dorm patrolling helps him connect with students so they feel safe, secure and comfortable in their living environment.
“We make great efforts, department-wide, where every officer makes an effort to engage students in conversation and to be approachable,” Noftz said. Being approachable to students, he added, is part of what helps to make dorms safe and conducive to a good living environment.
However, some students disagree as to whether having officers patrol dorms floor-to-floor is really the best way to make students feel comfortable.
Will Klatt, a founding member of OU’s Students for a Democratic Society and a former candidate for Student Senate president, said that the role of police on campus should be to respond to serious problems and circumstances, not to patrol where students are living. “It sets up a dynamic that I don’t think is appropriate,” he said.
Noftz said that OUPD officers frequent the residence halls to serve as both a deterrent to crime from a visual standpoint, and also to be available when residents have questions or concerns about something. It’s always been a philosophy of the department, he maintained, to have an emphasis on foot patrol in and around the residence halls.
Though that may be the case since Noftz has been involved with the OUPD, students and officers who recalled the situation in the ’70s and ’80s said it was rare to see a police officer patrolling dorm hallways back then.
Noftz tried to clarify why the OUPD thinks this is a good thing. “We try to have a very heavy presence in the residence halls… and a big part of that philosophy is that we are more approachable – people see us on a regular basis, usually when there aren’t any problems,” Noftz said. Part of the reason the department strives to have such a strong presence, he explained, is so students can see and meet officers in everyday situations, and realize that officers are there to help and act as a valuable resource to students, not merely enforcement.
Jesse Neader, a West Green student senator, feels differently. Living in both Jefferson and Shively halls last year, Neader said that whenever he saw police in the hallways, “It was always when something was wrong.”
Neader argued that having officers in the dorm hallways undermines the type of community that resident assistants (RAs) and resident directors (RDs) strive for. Though RAs and RDs do regular rounds and monitor what’s happening in their particular areas, they’re usually friendly, accessible and helpful, he said.
JUDY PIERCY, DIRECTOR OF Residence Life at OU, maintains that OUPD’s presence in the dorms is essential and helpful. She noted that officers patrol buildings and often do rounds with RAs to get students comfortable with the police presence.
OUPD’s frequent involvement in the residence halls is about building a connection between the students and the officers who keep an eye on the community where they live, Piercy said.
“It’s a community policing concept, not an enforcement concept,” she said, adding that after 19 years of working in Residence Life, “it’s unequivocally about community policing.” Crackdowns and enforcement, she said, come secondary, and only when necessary.
Klatt, however, wholeheartedly disagreed. “Saying, ‘community policing,’ I think that’s a misuse of the term,” he said. In his experience, Klatt said that when OUPD officers patrol dorms the way they do, it pits police against students, instead of trying to reinforce the police’s role as a public servant. Patrolling residence halls is wasteful and counter productive, he contended.
Neader agreed, saying, “You can spin it anyway you want, but I think their main goal is enforcement.”
When students feel that strong police presence, it makes them uncomfortable in what is essentially their home, Neader stated. “Most people look at [dorms] as their homes.”
Neader insisted that having police patrol hallways “takes you out of your comfort zone.” Living in the dorms last year, Neader recalled, “It was always kind of intimidating walking to the restroom and there’s an officer there, in uniform.”
Neader stated that he felt as if a regular police presence in residence halls was an invasion of students’ personal space. “It makes for an uncomfortable living environment,” he said. “It’s intimidating to have a police officer right outside your door.”
Though the lines between private and public often can be blurred in community living situations, OUPD and Residence Life maintain that the only real privacy students can expect is in their own rooms.
Piercy acknowledged that community living like that in residence halls can present a big change to students new to the environment. Clearly, she stated, it’s much different than living in an apartment or house, so that expectation of privacy is diminished in many cases.
Part of what Residence Life tries to do, Piercy said, is help educate and prepare students on how to deal with that change, and best adapt to it. “It’s obviously very different living,” she said.
LT. NOFTZ, WHO HIMSELF lived in the dorms as an OU student years ago, remembered that he never felt that high an expectation of privacy outside of his dorm room. He guessed that the same goes for students today.
As far as privacy goes, Noftz said, “From a law-enforcement perspective, a student’s room is their residence, so it’s not like any rules change because someone lives in a residence hall as far as someone’s rights and those kinds of things are concerned.”
“We’re only in the public areas,” he explained.
The only time an officer would ever enter a student’s room, Nofz said, is under extraordinary circumstances, with permission, or with a search warrant. There are some exceptions, he explained, noting that an officer might need to enter a room if there’s a fire, or if a student’s in serious danger.
“It’s under either a search warrant, or some exemption to a search warrant, or officers don’t go into someone’s room,” he said.
Piercy echoed Lt. Noftz’s statement, saying that the only time an officer would ever be forced to enter a room would be under severe or exceptional circumstances when someone’s in immediate danger.
“We like to respect the privacy of students,” she said. “Officers are not going to just force their way into rooms.”
Piercy said that Residence Life and OUPD have to weigh the importance of security as well as privacy. “I think there’s a balance that needs to be struck,” she said. However, Piercy added that safety is the primary function of an officer’s job in the residence halls. “That’s first and foremost,” she said.
Klatt, however, said that he never really felt as if the residence halls were more secure just because of officers in the buildings. Because of what he feels is an emphasis on enforcement, he felt as if the safety aspect is a little overstated. “That’s quite an exaggeration,” he said.
Though crimes do happen on campus, Klatt said that dorms are a secure living environment. “Residence halls are a place of community, and communities are pretty good at protecting themselves against crime,” he said.
In Klatt’s view, having police in the dorms creates a more threatening environment that potentially criminalizes students.
It’s an odd paradox, Klatt admitted, that many students break the law, whether with drinking or getting high, in their rooms, and yet, there’s often an officer right outside the door. “It certainly doesn’t deter criminal behavior,” and more often, it just creates friction with the police, he said.
Neader charged that it’s obvious that Residence Life, OUPD and the university don’t trust students when they have police officers going floor to floor, keeping tabs on students. “We’re being monitored like we’re in high school,” he said.
Klatt said everyone knows that drinking and getting high in the dorms is widespread. “The administration might be on to something, though; the best way to control the student body is to criminalize our youth culture and make us all feel like criminals,” he quipped.
Neader agreed, saying that a heavy police force clearly doesn’t stop students from drinking in the dorms. “At that point, it’s a scare tactic; it’s not really stopping anybody,” he said.
TO MAKE STUDENTS FEEL MORE comfortable with the police presence, OUPD and Residence Life said they work together to provide seminars and other events for students, hoping to better connect students with the officers they see frequent their hallways.
“We do a lot of programming efforts in the residence halls, and that’s just another opportunity when we’re going down there when there’s not a bad situation,” Noftz said. “We’re just passing on information related to enhancing safety.”
Some of the programs offered by OU police officers are self-defense classes and sexual-assault prevention and theft-prevention seminars, as well other events that help students understand personal safety, Piercy said.
She said that it’s important to make sure officers can meet students in those normal settings, conveying to residents that all of the traffic through the dorms is to help make them secure and safe. “I’ve had students say they appreciate knowing that police come through the buildings,” she said.
Sally Neidhard, Student Senate vice president, said that as an RA last year in Brown Hall, she felt comforted knowing that the police frequented her hall. “There were a few situations where I knew that I was not sufficient as far as providing protection for my residents, and I felt much better having officers around,” she said.
Neader said he would have no problem with police being in lobbies and around greens, monitoring to keep students safe. However, he thinks that floor-to-floor patrolling hallways is too much.
“It personally doesn’t make me feel safer,” he said. “It’s just a violation of my space.”
Noftz, however, insisted, “I think that we establish a lot of rapport with students by spending the time getting out of the cruisers and being accessible, approachable,” he said.
Everywhere he walks on campus, Noftz said that students smile and say hello. That, he added, shows him that OUPD’s approach to accessible, helpful and friendly officers is working with the students.
“I can’t walk 100 yards at a time on campus when someone’s not saying, ‘Hi Steve,’ or, ‘Officer Steve,’ or what have you,” Noftz said.
He quipped that students ought to call him, “Just Steve.”
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