So it appears that the priorities of the Duke Police Department are in proper order. On the front page of the Aug. 23 Chronicle, articles ran side-by-side describing a night where several off-campus parties were broken up for being too noisy, while a delivery man was held at gunpoint on Central. How many incidents of rape and robbery is it going to take before the real safety issues of this campus are addressed? Durham is a city that is ravaged by violent crime which has trickled onto this campus. One needs to look no further than the front page of the newspaper to realize that the amount of force used off of East to break up parties was more of a priority than protecting others who are actually on campus.
It seems that police officers—of both Durham and Duke—are going to the easy catch of big student parties instead of putting in the work to patrol the campus and surrounding area from real crime. Our tuition money that is devoted to the police department should be reserved for maintaining our overall safety from those who rape and rob on campus. Instead it is used to pay officers to give out citations and arrests bearing our own names, taking more money out of our own hands and putting it into theirs.
The Duke Police Department, with its new reign over the off-East Campus area, and the University, with its strict drinking policies, should re-examine where the real problems of this campus lie. Students will drink, that is imminent on a college campus. Rape, robbery and constant student arrests shouldn’t be.
Adam Pearse
Trinity ’07
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