Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

GUSA Sponsors First GUPD Roundtable

ALEXANDER BROWH/THE HOYA
ALEXANDER BROWH/THE HOYA

The Georgetown University Police Department held its first roundtable Wednesday evening.

The event, planned by Georgetown University Student Association Secretary of Student Health and Safety Nora West (SFS ’15) and GUSA Deputy Chief of Staff Trevor Tezel (SFS ’15), aimed to address common questions regarding GUPD.

West asked Chief of Police Jay Gruber and Deputy Chief Joseph Smith questions that had been submitted by students and addressed issues such as the Department of Public Safety’s name change to GUPD. Approximately 15 students were present to hear their responses.

“We wanted people to focus on what our core mission is: providing law enforcement,” Gruber said.

According to GUPD’s website, the unofficial shift was partly in an effort to distinguish Georgetown’s force from public safety departments at other universities, which also oversee services such as emergency management and environmental health and safety.

West also asked about GUPD’s negative public image on campus as a punitive agent rather than as a resource.

“People don’t send information about their negative experiences, so I don’t get information on what those negative interactions are,” Gruber said. “If I don’t know about those situations, I can’t take care of that.”

Smith added that many students incorrectly perceive GUPD’s role in monitoring student social life.

“An urban myth about our engagement in parties is that we are a party patrol,” Smith said. “We do not do that. When we come to a party, it’s invariably because somebody has called complaining that it’s gotten out of hand. We do not actively seek out parties.”

The discussion also touched on other subjects, such as clarifying GUPD’s sexual assault policy. According to Gruber, while GUPD has a mandate to alert the Metropolitan Police Department for all sexual assault cases, survivors are not required to go through the criminal justice process.

Gruber also reported that the rate of laptop theft has fallen dramatically from last year, with only one or two stolen so far.

Another issue brought up during the roundtable was GUPD’s relationship with Georgetown, as it is on the university’s pay-roll.

“My personal moral and ethical compass will not allow me to take action that is not morally or ethically right. So, if the university leadership would tell me, you need to unarrest that person, I can’t do it,” Gruber said. “Even though we are employed by the university and acting as agents for the university, it would be wrong on many levels and from a federal standpoint — the Clery Act requires us to report things that happen.”

The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, signed into law by former President George H.W. Bush, requires all schools to disclose information about crime on and around their campuses.

The roundtable also addressed the department’s role in student-neighbor relations.

“We don’t play sides,” Gruber said. “We have an obligation to ensure that our students act responsibly and are good citizens of the community, but I also think students have some rights in the city, and sometimes the neighbors are unreasonable.”

He added that neighbors should be cognizant and understanding of the type of environment in which they reside.

“They’ve now decided to live near a university,” Gruber said. “It brings a vibrant culture, it brings wonderful programming [and] it also brings 18- to 21-year-olds.”

At the end of the roundtable, Gruber said that he hoped to hold a roundtable once or twice every semester to address student concerns.

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