Commentary scares,not informs

I am writing in response to the “”Campus police badger, not protect”” commentary that the Daily Wildcat ran on Thursday, Sept. 2. The sole purpose of the commentary, it seems, was not to inform the student body of a problem on campus, but rather to simply get students angry with a group of professionals who dedicate their careers to keeping us safe. And we should be angry because they uphold the law by giving out MIPs? It is one thing to disagree with the law and push for reform, but it is another to blame the people who uphold the law for the law itself.

The commentary states that UAPD is adding “”an entire additional set of officers for the sole purpose of nabbing underage drinkers,”” as a direct conclusion to a quote on UAPD’s website (and a quote that the commentary uses) that states “”The University of Arizona Police Department will be deploying additional officers to enhance enforcement capabilities in alcohol, DUI and traffic laws in selected areas of the campus.”” The commentary immediately ignores evidence that it had presented only a few sentences earlier. Instead of even mentioning DUI laws or traffic laws among the described “”scare tactics”” UAPD uses, the commentary focuses on a topic that is most likely going to get the student body up in arms, angry and scared.  

Maybe we should consider the possibility that the environment we, the student body, create could possibly be influencing how UAPD responds to underage drinkers. Instead of making students scared of the UAPD, why not educate them? Talk to a residence hall’s liaison officer, or even try to go on a ride-along with an officer. Maybe if we could all see what officers see on a daily basis, we might have a better idea of why alcohol-related laws (underage, DUI, etc) are taken so seriously by our officers. Maybe then we all would realize that a “”let it be”” attitude that the commentary pushes for is a dangerous attitude to take.

– Jay Fielder, operations management junior

Photo headline did not reflect reality of situation

The front-page photo title on Wednesday’s Wildcat (“”False Alarm””) is misleading. This alarm was not false. In fact, the alarm system did exactly what it was designed and intended to do; give early warning of a potentially dangerous fire situation and warn the occupants to evacuate. The alarm was initiated by food  left cooking on a stove in the residence hall kitchen. While an actual fire did not occur, the generated smoke migrated into the corridor and initiated the building smoke detectors.My compliments go to the residents and hall staff for recognizing the urgency of the alarm and properly evacuating the building and cooperating with the first responders. False alarms do indeed occur, sometimes due to construction or maintenance activities or, unfortunately, because of malicious intent. No matter the cause of the alarm, immediate reaction and evacuation to all fire alarms is important to save lives.

– Herbert N. Wagner Jr., associate director of Risk Management & Safety