Trading BoPo for P-safe

The Public Safety first response model would charge Public Safety officers with all emergency response responsibilities. As is the case for the rest of Princeton’s campus, Public Safety officers would serve in their usual crime-prevention role as well as a paramedic role, in the case of medical emergencies in the eating clubs. Of course, Public Safety could still turn to the Borough Police as backup.

This paradigm would certainly improve emergency response and prevention on Prospect. During emergencies, Public Safety officers can more rapidly access McCosh Health Center, contact other students necessary for emergency response and use campus medical records in the event of medical emergencies, resulting in faster, more precise responses to emergencies on Prospect. Couple faster emergency response with Public Safety’s wider flexibility with respect to disciplinary conduct, and Public Safety certainly wins with respect to disaster prevention.

Public Safety has another advantage over the Borough Police: The student body is generally more willing to contact Public Safety in cases of emergencies. Whereas the student body generally avoids the Borough Police because its officers are stigmatized, whether justly or unjustly, for being unfairly unsympathetic to student concerns, Public Safety by nature better understands Princeton students. This is no small consideration, for increasing the use of emergency response resources is perhaps the most important step to preventing catastrophes.

Public Safety would also benefit the student body on smaller matters. It has greater access to the student body in cases of theft, harassment or random lewdness, without the legal hassles associated with administrative procedure. Certainly, Public Safety would be far more effective in dealing with the little, petty crimes that trouble us — the little crimes that campus police forces are far better equipped to combat.

Additionally, in the face of heavy budget cuts, and in light of plans to downsize the police force, the external benefits to the Borough would be enormous: The town would be better protected on Thursdays and Saturdays, without the diversion that the eating clubs cause to the town’s police force.

There are certainly some concerns with placing Public Safety on Prospect. It’s not hard to imagine a scenario under which placing unarmed patrols as first responders could be harmful. This, however, is a risk that we mitigate effectively throughout campus: Half of Public Safety consists of fully trained, sworn officers, who can still be effective without firearms. Moreover, in the rare event that armed officers are truly necessary, Public Safety would still retain the option of contacting the Borough Police for armed support.

The other primary concern is financial: If charged with caring for the Street, Public Safety would likely have to expand its paramedic capabilities. However, it’s also likely that the school can perform first response tasks more efficiently than the town can, given the infrastructure we already have ready for the rest of campus. And it’s certainly true that promoting student safety on Prospect is worth the slight staffing costs that Public Safety would likely incur.

Director of Public Safety Paul Ominsky has already begun to engage in conversations with the Princeton Borough about taking over the Street patrol. We — students, administrators and clubs alike — ought give him our unequivocal support.