Written by 7:51 pm News • 7 Comments

New London Police Visit Campus to Curb Underage Drinking

Last Friday night, a large group of Conn students gathered at Mambo Bar and Restaurant on Bank Street in downtown New London. This group was comprised of a mix of underclassmen and upperclassmen, some below the legal drinking age and some above it. Like other bar nights at this college, many underage students used either a friend’s old driver’s license or an entirely falsified ID to get into the bar and order drinks. As the crowd was beginning to leave, students came down from the upstairs dance floor and found officers from the New London Police Department at both exits. Students of age showed their IDs and tried to hail a taxi home, while students who used fake IDs began to panic.

One underage senior barely avoided the police as she was leaving the bar. “I just snuck out,” she said, “I knew they couldn’t card everyone.”

An underage sophomore was outside the bar with several friends when a police car approached them. The officer asked the girls whether they were over 21 and if they had been drinking. The student and her friends didn’t reply. “All of a sudden, three other cops showed up,” she said. “They took down our names and birth dates. We didn’t think to give them fake names.” When asked for identification, the girls showed their Connecticut College school IDs rather than their state-issued driver’s licenses.

The incident continued on campus when several New London police officers knocked on dorm room doors at 4 AM  and issued underage students $200 citations for possessing falsified identification documents.

Nick Bright ’11, a resident of the third floor of Freeman, woke up at 4:30 AM. “I opened my door and saw four NLPD officers in the hallway knocking on my neighbor’s door,” he said. Concerned, he asked the police if his neighbor was all right several times before they answered him. “They asked me if he had her number and if I’d call her to determine if she was in her room,” he said. “When she didn’t answer her phone, they asked me for her phone number and I went back to my room.”

“I would have felt more comfortable if [the NLPD] had gotten the Housefellows to walk around with them to make sure they didn’t come into my room,” said the sophomore. “I was confused about how they got into the dorms in the first place.” After the incident, she received an e-mail from Associate Dean of Student Life and Judicial Board adviser Sarah Cardwell to come meet with her. In the meeting, they discussed what happened that night from the students’ perspective, and why the cops handled the situation differently than in the past (they have never come on campus to give citations to students before.)

“When I met with Dean Cardwell, she asked me to be aware that what I do off campus affects what happens on campus,” she said.  “The school was not super happy with the fact that the police were on campus.”

An underage junior was at Mambo that night, and was reprimanded by a police officer while still inside the bar. “A cop gave us a huge lecture about how we should stay on our campus because now we’re on the New London police’s turf, that they could be out saving people but instead they’re messing around with us kids. At the end, they told us to not come down to New London anymore.” She returned to her dorm and fell asleep, only to be awakened at 4:30 by several officers knocking on her door. She signed the citation she was handed, but she said that the implications of the citation were not explained to her. This junior also stated, “In general, it was a scary experience, especially assuming that Campus Safety gave out my information and allowed them to come to my room early [in the] morning without an escort. I pretty much signed something I didn’t even read or understand.”

Campus Safety officers at the gatehouse would not speak on the matter and Director of Campus Safety Stewart Smith was not available for comment.

Many students have responded to this issue with the same question: at a private institution, when are police allowed on campus and into the dorms? No concrete answers to this question have emerged. Nothing in the CC Student Handbook prohibits members of the New London Police from coming on campus. What many students involved that night asked, however, is not how the police came onto campus, but how they found specific student’s dorms and room numbers. The on-call area coordinator was not consulted before the police came onto campus. The Housefellows were not notified that night. They were also instructed not to comment on this issue.

Bright questioned the purpose of the NLPD on campus at all. “I thought it wildly inappropriate, and a complete overreaction to underage drinking,” he said. “I think Campus Safety needs to rethink their cooperation with the police in these instances.” Judicial Board Chair Conor Walsh ’11 said, “It’s a shame that events occurred as they did. The school is going to have a conversation with New London Police this week. The only way we can ensure this doesn’t happen again is to form a better relationship with the New London police.” •

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