The war against petty crime roars on with security seeming far more interested in illegally parked cars than stolen laptops. We have all seen the posters alerting us of a Fairfield crime spree. It would seem natural to turn to campus security to work on this problem. Unfortunately they seem far too busy checking for illegally parked cars as a recent incident involving a friend of mine indicates.
A friend had her car on campus with a seemingly valid parking pass. It was issued for this school year for a student who is now abroad and therefore in no need of the pass. Security apparently had the time to check the numbers on the sticker, trace its origins, and “go in for the bust,” as it were.
Several questions need to be thought about with regard to this incident. First of all, the car in question poses no significant threat to any students or space constraints. The parking permit acquired was good for the full year and is, in effect, a reservation for a space. Like any deed or property this one should be transferable. By effectively negating the permit after one semester the University has ripped off its original owner of half the face value. The Security Department and other officials should take the time to buy back no longer needed passes and issue new ones in place of them if they do not want students to resell their pass.
The likely university response would be that we are a private university and therefore free to set the rules. Technically this is true, but we also employ a Security Department whose stated goal, according to its website, is, “…to ensure that the entire university community stay as free as possible from crime, while maintaining an academic environment.” The violation here was petty at best and in no way affected the academic environment in comparison to more serious crimes of late.
Going to school in suburban Connecticut should insure a relatively high level of security. It should, but as we have seen in the “Crime Beat” section of this paper and by the stolen laptop flyers, the level of security here is not quite ideal. Serious incidents occur every week and it seems that Security is focusing an excessive amount of resources and time on parking issues. It causes one to question whether this is the best use of their skills.
I would argue that it is time that Security was more vigilant and informative to the student body. They should double their focus on door props, high fines are not effective deterrents since people rarely get caught, and open constructive dialogues with students to really understand campus life. Security needs not be looked at as merely the people who bust parties and write students up. They need to be thought of as guardians, valued members of the community in a student’s eyes. By increasing dialogue with students and issuing informative bulletins electronically and in print they can truly connect with us. The biggest downfall of Security it seems is their priorities. Illegal parking is trivial at best. For this one student they dealt with, there are many more that have been let down this year and even more who are cynical about just what they do.
It is time that Security be challenged and forced to confront the ways that they deal with crime and the methods, if any, they use to create dialogue with the students. Stop fighting the small fights and focus on the big ones. Find out what’s going on instead of just busting what’s going down.
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