Police To Enact Stricter Policies

The Boston Police Department (BPD) outlined plans for new, harsher “zero-tolerance” policies for student campuses at a meeting last Wednesday with representatives from about 10 colleges—specifically citing the Harvard-Yale game as a event which needs stricter policing.

These policies-—as part of the BPD’s “Operation Student Shield”—are currently in place in Allston and Brighton, and will go into effect throughout Boston in September.

Capt. William Evans, commander of the Brighton and Allston districts, emphasized that although the BPD is eager to implement greater campus outreach and orientation in order to educate students about running afoul of the law, they would also follow through with arrests and warnings.

“We do a great educational piece here,” Evans said, “but we also back it up. We understand what it is to be a student, but when your conduct gets out of control... we have to take some action.”

Although the BPD does not have jurisdiction over the city of Cambridge, many of the changes mentioned in the meeting will affect student life.

Evans mentioned last year’s Harvard-Yale tailgate, which he has severely criticized in many meetings since the event, as a paradigm of the sort of bad behavior to be avoided.

He mentioned specifically public urination as well as public drunkenness as offenses not to be taken lightly.

“To me, that day was a disgrace,” Evans said of last year’s tailgate, where kegs were banned, but several students suffered alcohol poisoning regardless.

“I’ve never left with such a terrible feeling about the way kids can abuse themselves. I was so upset by it that within a week I had three Harvard deans in my office, and I told them that that day will never go on like it did again,” Evans said.

Evans did not specify what actions BPD will take at 2006 Harvard-Yale game, when the Game will be back at Harvard, but he said that students should be prepared for a stricter level of policing.

The “Operation Student Shield” may also hit Harvard students’ nightlife, as undercover police will be stationed at many Boston clubs and bars, on the lookout for underage drinking and fake IDs.

Similarly, Evans said, BPD will start placing more undercover officers in shops selling alcohol.

The BPD will be particularly stringent around large events, such as the upcoming Boston Marathon. Students caught breaking the law will be arrested and their parents notified by the university.

Evans said that parental notifications are successful deterrents to offenses.

“It’s what we’ve done in Brighton for the last nine years and what we’re trying to bring city-wide,” Evans said.

The forthcoming expansion of Harvard’s campus into Allston and Brighton will also make these policies more relevant to Harvard students, as those are areas within the Boston city limits and therefore subject to the BPD.

Evans noted this and said that if Harvard was going to build in these districts the University would have to “crack down” on bad behavior.

“I’m not anti-fun by any means,” Evans said. But he added that it was “a disgrace” to have students publicly urinating in residential areas.

BPD Deputy Superintendent Darren Greeley also discussed crimes in Chinatown and the Theater District at the meeting.

He highlighted an increase in drug-dealing and prostitution in recent years and described the BPD’s attempts to combat these crimes by using plainclothes police officers and frequent patrols to target pick-ups.

Greeley also said that the BPD will try to work with students to make them more willing to exchange information with the department.

“What we’re trying to do is establish a line of communication here,” Greeley said.

But at Boston College (BC) housing, where the system has already been running for a number of years, it has been criticized as unnecessary police interference.

“Operation Student Shield has a bad name,” said Benjamin Knappmiller, Director of Political Action for the Undergraduate Government of BC. But he explained that the BPD was trying to remedy this by working more closely with students.

“The general feeling from BC is that...we understand we’re part of a community but we shouldn’t be singled out. As long as it doesn’t become Big Brother-ish and our privacy rights aren’t taken advantage of I think everyone would admit it’s a good [program].”