LU Students and Farmville Police Still Having Issues
Issue date: 1/20/10 Section: News
By Rachel Leake
Rotunda Reporter
Many students have had complaints about the Farmville Police Department. The number of complaints was so significant last year that the student government had to address the issue. The student's frustrations were most heavily heard last April during an open forum with the Farmville Police Department (FPD) as a part of their outside assessment.
It's not easy to see where exactly the tensions started. Chief Gregg E. Jarvies (Ret.) of the Chapel Hill, North Carolina Police Department was hired as an independent contractor last April to evaluate the FPD. In his assessment he stated, "There is clear evidence that a few Farmville police officers target Longwood University students and other young adults and do so using questionable enforcement techniques."
Although it is necessary to note this assessment is of the FPD, the Longwood University Police Department (LUPD) is currently under investigation by the Virginia State Police for a controversial incident involving the son of the LUPD Chief Robert R. Beach.
Select officers from both departments agreed about knowing of bad policing, but they generally claimed it to be in the past. Officer Marilyn Durham of the FPD believes that the student's adversarial view of the department stems from "preconceived ideas that just keep getting passed on from year to year to year, versus new instances."
Yet students still accuse some officers with stalking people outside of the bar or being overly aggressive with pretextual stops. From the contractor's assessment of the FPD, the per capita rate of arrest, not conviction, for drunk in public (DIP) offenses in Farmville is "two times higher than Charlottesville, three times higher than Williamsburg and Alexandria, four times higher than Newport News and Norfolk and five times higher than Richmond."
A possible reason for these numbers might be that most of the FPD's money comes directly from tickets. Durham explained, "We don't get a lot of money from the state anyway because we're a township. It goes to the county…Most of our money comes from tickets." Another possible reason could be the concern with underage drinking, which seemed to be the appropriate response from select officers from both departments. However, if that is a concern, then according to Jarvies, charging persons with underage possession of alcohol and drunk in public is a reactive enforcement technique and does not address the underlying problem of how and where the alcohol is being purchased and consumed.
Rotunda Reporter
Many students have had complaints about the Farmville Police Department. The number of complaints was so significant last year that the student government had to address the issue. The student's frustrations were most heavily heard last April during an open forum with the Farmville Police Department (FPD) as a part of their outside assessment.
It's not easy to see where exactly the tensions started. Chief Gregg E. Jarvies (Ret.) of the Chapel Hill, North Carolina Police Department was hired as an independent contractor last April to evaluate the FPD. In his assessment he stated, "There is clear evidence that a few Farmville police officers target Longwood University students and other young adults and do so using questionable enforcement techniques."
Although it is necessary to note this assessment is of the FPD, the Longwood University Police Department (LUPD) is currently under investigation by the Virginia State Police for a controversial incident involving the son of the LUPD Chief Robert R. Beach.
Select officers from both departments agreed about knowing of bad policing, but they generally claimed it to be in the past. Officer Marilyn Durham of the FPD believes that the student's adversarial view of the department stems from "preconceived ideas that just keep getting passed on from year to year to year, versus new instances."
Yet students still accuse some officers with stalking people outside of the bar or being overly aggressive with pretextual stops. From the contractor's assessment of the FPD, the per capita rate of arrest, not conviction, for drunk in public (DIP) offenses in Farmville is "two times higher than Charlottesville, three times higher than Williamsburg and Alexandria, four times higher than Newport News and Norfolk and five times higher than Richmond."
A possible reason for these numbers might be that most of the FPD's money comes directly from tickets. Durham explained, "We don't get a lot of money from the state anyway because we're a township. It goes to the county…Most of our money comes from tickets." Another possible reason could be the concern with underage drinking, which seemed to be the appropriate response from select officers from both departments. However, if that is a concern, then according to Jarvies, charging persons with underage possession of alcohol and drunk in public is a reactive enforcement technique and does not address the underlying problem of how and where the alcohol is being purchased and consumed.
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