“Working together for a safer community” is a motto for the Boston College Police Department that, we can all agree, gives a rosier impression to a police force that has not always fostered positive relationships with the student body whose job it is to protect.

The BCPD is unusual in that it is granted the rights of an actual police force and as well has the ability to exercise its authority outside of the Boston College area. Thank God for that I say. I think that Chestnut Hill and Newton need as many police as they can get. Please note my effective use of sarcasm.

The area that BC is located in is one of the safest I would venture to say in the country.  So do we, the Boston College community, really need a police force of 51 “sworn police officers” that serves no real purpose other than… well, I guess I cannot think of even one reason.

Most colleges and universities have police forces that are established to keep the community safe, not to intimidate students while on patrol. The University of Southern California police force is a perfect example of law enforcement on campus. USC is surrounded by a not so nice neighborhood. Crime actually does exist in that area and so there really is a need for a police force. But this one is used to protect the student body from threats from the outside, not to instill fear in those who they are supposed to protect.

This Halloween presented some examples of the types of tactics of fear that prevent such positive relationships from developing. The Mods are a safe place for students (of-age students of course) to enjoy themselves, and the police are occasionally inclined not to roam the narrow streets in their patrol cars. However, this Halloween, not only were there patrol cars working their way among the students, but ones patrolling the outskirts.

They are not, I assure the reader, looking to prevent any hoodlums from the surrounding ghettos (sarcasm again) from starting trouble. They are on the lookout for their primary targets: students who they can stop, perhaps for a reason, perhaps for none at all, and in their words get a chance to, one-on-one, “develop a positive relationship.” This could involve a fun little trip to the infirmary. That’s if you are lucky enough though.