In the past, members of WSU PD were allowed to patrol through campus residence halls as they would public streets. But in response to a 2006 Whitman County court ruling, police are now barred from WSU residence halls without a search warrant or having received an emergency call.

The judge in the case ruled that students deserve privacy within the confines of hallways and common areas within residence halls.

Barring campus police from patrolling the most densely populated living areas on campus is a huge mistake.

Residence halls are not private residences. They are not houses or apartments – they are more akin to hotels. They are places students stay for a few short months, then leave for vacation, then come back to again, then leave, return, leave for the summer and usually never return afterward. 

In the actual rooms students occupy, they certainly deserve a right to privacy, but WSU PD was never stomping through the rooms to begin with. Too bad the same cannot be said for resident advisers within the dorms. 

RAs have complete access to each individual’s room within a residence hall. They are the ones now expected to enforce the law within the dorms. The only problem is, RAs are students like the rest of us. They are subject to enjoying the same vices they are supposed to be on the lookout for.

Police officers have years of training and experience when it comes to upholding the law. RAs do not.

Furthermore, RAs are now outnumbered by other students at a level never before seen. An average WSU residence hall now has a 35:1 student-RA ratio due to the 40 percent increase in freshmen enrolled this year. It is not possible for inadequately trained students to supervise their peers when such a large ratio exists.

With large freshmen classes expected to become the norm, WSU needs to revisit its policy and allow WSU PD to once again patrol the residence halls.

More young people forced to live together in close conditions, three per room in many cases now, is bound to create problems. Especially when you consider how broke the average 18-year-old is. Crimes, theft in particular, are bound to rise in such situations.

As a compromise, WSU PD and residence halls should work out a system where they schedule police walkthroughs and publicly announce them within the halls. That way students are aware of when police will be on patrol, the police can maintain some semblance of a presence within the residence halls and students can interact with police in a non-negative format.

When police are only allowed to show up in response to crime, students maintain a negative stigma about them. But if students can see police acting in a non-intrusive, preventative way, the tension that tends to exist between the two groups can be eased. 

Students can then rest easy at night, knowing the police are a mere shout away from coming to the rescue.