BY ASHIA TROIANO

In print | Published April 23, 2009

“The [Borough] Police don’t do anything here that they can’t do in the real world,” Reid Wilkening ’10, Pittenger 1st RA, said. “We pretend that Swarthmore isn’t the real world, but we are. The Police do the same things here that they would do anywhere else.”

And although both the Police and the college Public Safety are authorized to respond to a number of overlapping scenarios, the two work together to maintain a division of jurisdiction that makes sense: generally, Public Safety addresses problems that affect student and campus security while the Swarthmore Borough Police deals with incidents that occur outside the college, have legal ramifications or that affect the health of students.

“If the case requires prosecution, or there are any crimes where an apprehension is made, it is done by the police. If it is a college incident, Public Safety is more than capable of handling it,” Chief of Swarthmore Borough Police Brian Craig said. 

Following up on the case of gunpoint robbery that happened on campus last week, for example, falls under the province of the Borough Police. “This is really the police’s case to figure out who did this,” Associate Dean for Student Life Myrt Westphal said.

“There is very little interaction by our department into Swarthmore Borough concerns,” Owen Redgrave, Director of Public Safety, said in an e-mail. Even when dealing with situations concerning students, Public Safety will call for assistance from the police if necessary. In 2006, Public Safety called the Swarthmore Police for backup when dealing with a student causing a disturbance near Phi Psi. The incident resulted in an arrest and a number of citations. 

The police are in a position to get involved any time they judge necessary. “Public Safety officers are not armed, so if the officer will be in danger handling the incident by him or herself, we will respond,” Craig said. “If there is a call in progress, we respond. If it is a minor incident, the Public Safety officer will take a report. We take over if there is a prosecution,” Craig said. “And the Public Safety officer will be called to testify in the court case.”

Craig cited a case in which a suspected criminal did not respond to the Public Safety officer’s orders and instead ran away. The Public Safety officer called the police and the suspect was later caught. The officer will now appear as a witness in court. 

It is routine for the Swarthmore police to get involved in incidents that are medical emergencies. In 2007, when an ambulance was summoned after a student fell from the stairs in Tarble during the annual Halloween party, the police showed up moments afterward. According to a Phoenix article, though the student was issued a citation for underage drinking, rumors of increased police surveillance of the college were untrue.

Furthermore, it is routine for the Swarthmore police to ask for backup from police departments in neighboring counties. 

Citations
Between underage drinking, disorderly conduct and other forms of disturbances, Craig estimates that the department issues between 20 and 30 citations a year. “That’s probably much lower than the perception,” he said. “A lot are on the border of the college [property].”

Many citations are given for underage drinking and behavior associated with intoxication. “[The police’s] philosophy is if students aren’t held accountable, they will not receive alcohol education,” Westphal said. 

The college receives reports on student citations, to which the college responds appropriately. The student is entered into the college’s judicial system with a formal warning and is required to have a meeting with the deans and the drug and alcohol counselor. “The first interaction is gentle. After that, it jumps up in severity. We use it as a moment of education,” Westphal said. 

Craig also estimates that the police respond to a disturbance about once a month. “It’s gone down in past years because we work with the college to minimize that. We’re looking for cooperation, not confrontation,” he said. 

Patrolling the Borough and college campus
The Swarthmore police patrol the neighborhood, which includes both residential and campus areas, several times a day to maintain a regular presence. “In a 12 hour shift, we’ll cover the entire borough twice,” Craig said. “Officers might make two passes, or there may be two officers doing patrol.”

Furthermore, the police do not increase their presence during certain times of the year. With regards to major parties and campus events, Craig said, “They’ve been pretty well handled by the college, so there’s no reason to increase patrol unless there’s an intoxicated student or something like that. But we wouldn’t know about that before it happens.”

Craig said that during a normal patrol, the officers look for suspicious activity. “There’s no set route; that would negate the idea of [patrolling],” he said. “We only patrol in vehicles. We don’t get out and do foot patrols.”

Communication between the college and the police
Public Safety and the borough police have developed communication procedures over the years to ensure that the two departments are responding cooperatively to incidents on or near the college campus.

“[With] incidents such as medical emergencies, assistance with traffic problems, support for large athletic contests, disturbances, vehicle accidents, noise complaints, etc. [communication between the police and Public Safety] may average out to three times a week. There are also ongoing concerns such as investigation of unsolved thefts, burglaries and other serious crimes, missing persons, exchange of general law enforcement information, etc. that typically transpires every day,” Redgrave said in an e-mail. 

Both Public Safety and the police are able to listen to the other’s radio transmissions on their own radios by listening to each other’s bands. While each party can hear the other, they are not able to communicate using that method. Many times, the police are notified of and respond to incidents in this way. Craig cited public drunkenness as an example. “We usually turn them over to Public Safety. [The officers] may hear [the college’s band] and respond to it anyway.”

For a number of years, the college and the police department have engaged in monthly meetings that “serve mostly to reinforce relationships and review current issues,” according to Stuart Hain, Vice President of Facilities and Services. Members of the college as well as the Borough Council and Swarthmore Mayor Eck Gerner attend these meetings.

“The principal purpose of the meetings is to ensure good communication between the College and the borough, especially on issues related to safety and security,” Jim Larimore, Dean of Students, said in an e-mail. “In the past year, we’ve discussed concerns about traffic and pedestrian safety, town-gown relations in general, emergency preparedness, issues involving student safety and our mutual efforts to locate a missing student, among other topics.”

Westphal said that the meetings allow both groups to “talk from both perspectives, about what each of our philosophies are … It has led to a reduction of tension between the two approaches. They see that our job is education.”

The meetings take place on the Police Department’s grounds. “It is a symbolic expression of our desire to work together,” Westphal said. 

“I think the meetings have positively affected our work together. They have also served to allow us to work effectively through issues that may have caused tension in the past,” Hain said.

According to Westphal, these meetings made it easier for the College and the police to work together to find Matthew Baldwin. “We all knew each other. It wasn’t a matter of who was in charge,” Westphal said. 

Craig said that the police, who assist in RA and SMART training, are always open to communication with whomever wishes to do so.

“We make ourselves available to meet with anyone,” Craig said.

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