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Show Complaining does little good Better ways of dealing with police exist by T. Craig Thurber In response to my recent letter to the Chronicle, Dave Kilmer suggested that he and I go and talk to Lt. Wilkinson and Sgt. Ward of University Security to see if some differences of opinion could be straightened out. After our visit Dave suggested that I write this article from the point of view of one who has been hassled by the police and now has some understanding under-standing of the problems which exist in doing police work. First in the discussion was the matter of the ticket I received for improper registration of my car. The car was not proper in that I should have changed the li-. cense plates on it right away. The law reads that license li-cense plates are issued to people and not to cars. Therefore I should have had my own plates. While this may seem a strange thing to be written up for (as many of Utah's laws may), it was definitely an infraction. in-fraction. Presently the conversation moved to other areas which may be of interest. Lt. Wilkinson is of the opinion opin-ion that every driver that takes his car out on the road makes some sort of infraction, however slight it may be. Also that the purpose of the police is not just to write tickets for every little thing that happens, but rather to protect people from themselves. We all know that after receiving a ticket we keep the thought of driving safely in our minds for at least a short time. Perhaps this is a way of protecting people. Lt. Wilkinson and Sgt. Ward were both on the Orem City Police Department before coming to the University, and expressed somewhat different feelings feel-ings about giving tickets. Sgt. Ward feels that writing a ticket may save someones life, while Lt. Wilkinson said that whenever he writes a ticket he feels as though he is taking shoes off a kids feet. This attitude with the police produces a situation in which most tickets given are proper ones which may make our highways safer. Some people feel that when a cop is off dutvi-gets dutvi-gets pulled over for a traffic ticket all he hasto V show his police identification and he is let off L Wilkinson said this is not the case. He has retard ticket since he started working on the Unit force and that he hid his police ID aswellashecnil because he was ashamed of himself. Lt. Wilkinson also talked about the quality of ti; University Police. He said that they are always lip to improve . They have j ust recently requiredallcft newly hired officers to have college degreesandsors prior police experience. I was of the opinion tkUis . versity Police were some sort of rookie cops sentfe for a proving session. This is not true. Most of te have college degrees, prior experience in police tt and many are working on graduate degrees. About the relation of kids and cops on the camp Lt. Wilkinson said that he welcomes such discussite as ours because he doesn't really know whit a gripes are unless we come and tell him. Writing! to the Chrony and simply complaining does litllet; help anyone. The real help comes when there is sa effort to understand each side, and then dosomtfc to correct any leftover misunderstandings. About mace on campus: "Ever been hit wtl ! nightstick?" About parking tickets: "Everyone who is pale improperly is taking a parking space for someoneelx Our job is to see that those who are entitled toapii ing space are not deprived that space by havings one else park in it. With a campus the size of otirst may be more important than most students realia I suggest that students who become involved it the cops deal with them through the proper methods There exist very good methods of getting alongwn cops, just as there exist very good methods of ii them. This may well keep us from getting agoo:-squad agoo:-squad on our campus such as our Love-Thy-Biote institution to the south has. |