Fear factor
Our View: University Police must exercise extreme caution in using Facebook to crack down on campus crime.
Staff Editorial
Issue date: 5/1/07 Section: Opinion
W ithout a doubt, University Police have a job: keep our campus safe and do their best to prevent illegal activities. While Students for Sensible Drug Policy feels the police do not have a right to go undercover and get information on students via resources such as Facebook, we have to acknowledge the police have a right to use every resource legally available to them in order to combat illegal activities.
However, it is also essential to keep in mind that these sneaky tactics do not create a better atmosphere of cooperation between students and University Police but rather drive a wedge further between the two. These actions by the police create a lack of trust among students toward police, calling into question whether police and students share the same paths toward increased safety and crime prevention.
Are the police officers going undercover on Facebook doing the university a service? Probably not. Seeking out students assumed to be engaging in illegal activities based on their Facebook interests and group connections tells the student body no one is safe from guilt by association. Consider a student who has never smoked marijuana but joins a SSDP Facebook group. Should this student now worry he is under police surveillance? This may be a limited situation, but, as the saying goes, we're on a slippery slope that is truly Orwellian in its approach.
What seems perfectly conceivable based on the tactics reported in today's issue of The Diamondback, as well as other tactics used to discover and break up underage drinking parties in the past, is that University Police are on a mission. And that mission is to dispel any notion that the university is a party school. Combined with stringent Resident Life-imposed consequences that boot students from dorms for possessing pot (which SSDP and NORML Terps have been fighting for more than a year), it's clear that university administrators have narrowed their view of the kinds of students they want on this campus.
However, it is also essential to keep in mind that these sneaky tactics do not create a better atmosphere of cooperation between students and University Police but rather drive a wedge further between the two. These actions by the police create a lack of trust among students toward police, calling into question whether police and students share the same paths toward increased safety and crime prevention.
Are the police officers going undercover on Facebook doing the university a service? Probably not. Seeking out students assumed to be engaging in illegal activities based on their Facebook interests and group connections tells the student body no one is safe from guilt by association. Consider a student who has never smoked marijuana but joins a SSDP Facebook group. Should this student now worry he is under police surveillance? This may be a limited situation, but, as the saying goes, we're on a slippery slope that is truly Orwellian in its approach.
What seems perfectly conceivable based on the tactics reported in today's issue of The Diamondback, as well as other tactics used to discover and break up underage drinking parties in the past, is that University Police are on a mission. And that mission is to dispel any notion that the university is a party school. Combined with stringent Resident Life-imposed consequences that boot students from dorms for possessing pot (which SSDP and NORML Terps have been fighting for more than a year), it's clear that university administrators have narrowed their view of the kinds of students they want on this campus.
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Viewing Comments 1 - 5 of 5
Concerned Alum
posted 5/01/07 @ 3:32 PM EST
UMPD has shot themselves in the foot over and over again as result of their draconian crime-fighting crusades. What have they really accomplished??? Nothing, aside from undermining their relationship with the student body. (Continued…)
Veronica
posted 5/01/07 @ 4:39 PM EST
I don't understand why students who know the consequesces of smoking pot in the dorms do so anyway. If you want to live there, you have to obey the rules. (Continued…)
B.M. Washington
posted 5/01/07 @ 9:48 PM EST
It doesn't get any funnier than this. Using face book to bust dopers is going to drive a wedge between the police and students? You don't really think the cops want to have a chummy relationship with the pot heads, dealers, and other assorted "students" you describe do you?
I think that any student in their right mind would want the cops to use any tactic they could to keep drug dealers, and all the crime that is related to that world, off the campus. (Continued…)
Matt
posted 5/03/07 @ 1:19 PM EST
Here's a bit of advice: To avoid getting arrested for smoking pot...do not smoke pot. Not getting high = not getting arrested. It's that simple.
daguru
posted 5/09/07 @ 11:38 PM EST
I have heard all the arguments ref. legalizing drug use and even participated in some of the debates. It all boils down to this. It is a fine and noble crusade to seek reform. (Continued…)
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