Police presence reassures safety on campus

By: Filip Panovski/Contributing Writer

The number of police officers present on both the Biscayne Bay Campus and the Modesto Maidique Campus has been steadily increasing: we are now up to 49 officers.

While this may seem like a tiny number when compared to a student body of over 40,000, it seems to me that it has managed to keep us safe without the need for an officer at every corner.

In fact, most offenses at BBC have been steadily falling in number: two vehicle thefts in 2010, down from five in 2008. Robberies on the other hand have increased to a somewhat significant six

in 2010, up from only three in 2008.

Oddly, some students believe police presence has not increased in the past year to match this trend.

Veronique Buteau, a Pre-Med student, said,  “There’s not a lot of activity. I rarely see any police.”

Lindsie Cohen, an English major, said, “I feel like they’re gone in the evening. There’s a lot more of them in the morning and around Academic One.”

The latter should not come as a surprise as our campus is near a school zone, but the former, to me, is a tad conflicting with the decrease in crime.

Others shared slightly different views, such as Troy Bishop, who has seen a decent number of police patrols in the parking lot. He said, “I welcome the police presence on campus. The surrounding area has a lot of crime, and I’m glad it hasn’t spread.”

To put this into perspective, Miami-Dade registers at least 746 violent and 4760 non-violent offenses, and given the proximity, BBC has seen extensively little in comparison, which I find quite astounding.  Hopefully, this already low number of crimes will continue to sink with new additions to the police team.

Captain Alphonse Ianniello of the FIU Police force noted that as planned, up to 10 new officers would be hired every year for the next three years – of which BBC should see some.

His reasoning on the matter was that these new hires will enable the police force “to deter crime and better serve the community.”

Prepare and prevent, in a manner of speaking – a policy which has so far proven quite effective for our relatively large BBC environment of 7,000 students.

While some may have their mishaps with the police force, it is apparent to me they do not want to draw much attention to themselves.

And yet, much of the feedback on the campus police was rather positive or at the very least mild, with just a few instances of open dislike for their conduct.

This would definitely not be the case if they were mingling inside every building on campus.

Despite the fact that they are mostly lurking in the shadows of the parking lot lights and only vaguely seen anywhere else, whatever they may be up to seems to be doing the job.

As a student, I welcome this level of security. After all, safety doesn’t happen by accident.