After a series of columns profiling student experiences with our local police departments, it’s time to get the other side of the story.Recently, I sat down with Starkville Chief of Police David Lindley to discuss the Starkville Police’s perception of students. I relayed the student experiences that I had been made aware of and how most experiences with the police for students were negative.
The first thing that I wanted to find out from the chief was what his department does to ensure that officers are treating citizens with a fair amount of respect. To that, Chief Lindley was quick to point out that his entire department had just completed a mandatory law-enforcement ethics class.
At least we know that our officers are well-educated in ethical behavior when dealing with the public.
So, with mandatory ethics training in place and another mandatory “24 hours of law enforcement continuing education” that must be completed each year, why do we still have such a rift between city law enforcement and students?
One reason could be that our officers are understaffed.
“We have around 23,000 city residents and about 16,000 students and about fifty officers,” Lindley said. “That’s a little below the national average.”
Also, Starkville Police officers respond to about 1,100 to 1,300 documented calls for service in a given month. According to Lindley, that stretches police officers thin.
Although these are very relevant in explaining how we as students are sometimes treated, it still begs a question. Why aren’t there problems with other law enforcement agencies in our area?
Lindley was very approachable on any subject and was very gracious to grant an interview, but it would seem that our student experiences would not be as they are if every one of the measures his department takes reached fruition.
Perhaps among the subordinates of the chief there is another attitude.
I spent time in the Army, and we were under many rules, but some of them were overlooked at times. I can fully understand times when decorum must take a back seat to the task at hand.
However, with this pervasive negative outlook among students towards the municipal police, it seems that overlooking decorum is a standard.
I also asked Lindley if he felt that college students here are under the eyes of the police more so than students who attend community colleges or young people who work in other towns.
“We try to be as lenient as we can,” he said. “We don’t go after marginal violations. We try to go after the things that are a clear-cut problem, because we simply don’t have the manpower or staff to go after the more insignificant violations. We just try to be as reasonable as we can, and sometimes people just go out of their way to make things difficult for us and themselves. We’d rather not arrest anybody.”
They do arrest people, and students make up a large part of that. As the old adage goes: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
We know the rules, but some of us break them and our police force is there to be the deterrent against that.
Bottom line: If you find yourself in contact with one of the city police officers, be as nice as you possibly can. Know your rights and don’t be belligerent.
The police aren’t out there to catch people doing good; they’re there to catch people breaking the law. Don’t make yourself a target. Do what you know is right and legal, and if you think you’ve been treated unfairly, Lindley invites you to report the incident.