Question of the Week:

[asterroc]

Should college police officers carry guns?

Discuss.

Comments

[l0stmyrel1g10n.livejournal.com]

-both. college students are fairly likely, in my experience, to leave their doors unlocked and have their stuff stolen. college-age females are also fairly likely targets for sexual assault.
-again, both. sometimes students get in fights, do stupid shit, steal each other's stuff...but there are also other members of the community who see an opportunity to take advantage of the students' follies.
-more of the latter, i suppose, but a bit of both. if you're committing a crime and you see an armed officer coming toward you, you're more likely to run away than if you saw an unarmed rentacop.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

if you're committing a crime and you see an armed officer coming toward you, you're more likely to run away than if you saw an unarmed rentacop.

And that begs the question of whether the criminal can clearly tell the difference - and even how much of a difference there is in the first place. As I am at a state school, they are police officers with all the power of local police officers or state troopers, such as the power to make arrests. They are lacking the gun but most of them carry mace and I think I've seen billy clubs or something similar on our officers. Their uniforms are indistinguishable from local police officers. IMO they do not look any less intimidating or official than local police officers.

(Except the poor newbie officer who gets stuck on crossing-guard duty every the morning. The newest officer always seems to get that job, and s/he looks like quite the sap wearing that reflective vest.)

[l0stmyrel1g10n.livejournal.com]

ah. at my school, the security officers look nothing like RPD officers. their trucks also look nothing like patrol cars. it's pretty easy to tell the difference, and the security officers are not very intimidating.