Public Safety regains control over Prospect calls

Public Safety will no longer be required to notify the Princeton Borough Police of calls from Prospect Avenue. Under the newly revised policy, if students call Public Safety from the eating clubs, they will receive the same response as the one they would receive if they called from an on-campus location.

The decision was made over the summer following many discussions among numerous groups, including the eating club presidents, University officials, Borough Police and Public Safety.

According to an email sent out to members of Colonial Club on Thursday night by Colonial president Susan Zhang ’12, “the borough has now agreed to let Public Safety transport students to McCosh once again (from the Street), and none of the transport information will be disclosed to the police.”

This past March, the Department of Public Safety and the eating club presidents announced that Public Safety would inform the Princeton Borough Police Department of all calls for assistance from the eating clubs.

The policy was not met warmly by students or by eating club presidents.

“I’m honestly afraid that this policy could result in students getting hurt, or worse ,” Interclub Council and Cloister Inn president Jake Sally ’12 said at the time. “I really believe it’s going to make things much more difficult for not only the students, but the University and the Borough as well.”

The eating clubs on Prospect Avenue are private property and thus are within the Borough police’s jurisdiction, leading to the Borough’s request to receive all calls from the eating clubs. Before March, all calls made from the eating clubs had gone directly to Public Safety.

Under both policies, students who called for help did not typically suffer any consequences.

“We do not charge people for making a call to the police to help a friend,” Borough Police Captain Nicholas Sutter said in March. He added that of 71 underage alcohol incidents in the Borough between September 2010 and March 2011, not one had resulted in charges.

“The one and main concern of the Princeton Borough Police Department with underage intoxicated people is to get them help and medical attention, not charging them,” he said.

Still, eating club presidents worried that police involvement could scare off some students from seeking help. Zhang said in her email that the presidents had felt “a little worried” about the policy and were afraid that students would not call for help because they feared the consequences of having a police record.

Public Safety director Paul Ominsky confirmed that Public Safety had also been concerned that students were not calling for help when he saw a noticeable drop in calls after the policy change in March.

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“The ICC has had multiple discussions with both Public Safety and the Borough Police to try to reverse the new policy,” Sally said in an email. “I think reverting to the previous policy has substantially increased safety for the students.”

Though Public Safety can transport students to McCosh without notifying the police, the police will be alerted if Public Safety assesses that an ambulance is needed and the student is transported to Princeton Medical Center. This holds true for on-campus locations as well. Any emergency phone calls to the 911 number will continue to be directed to the Borough Police.

Regardless of the policy, Ominsky emphasized that everyone’s main goal was the students’ safety. “We want students to call for help and not hesitate,” he said.