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MARCH 3-16, 2008 EDITION

PRINT EDITION HEADLINES: Panel discussin on safety; African-American Heritage Dinner; AASU Spring Fashion Show; Nutrition month; What's in the water?; Stereo Strikes Back!; Movie Review; Obama fit to lead?; Basketball wrap-up;

PHOTO GALLERY

AASU Fashion Show: Students gave their best runway impressions at the African-American Student Union's spring fashion show. Photos by Fadi Shihahdeh.

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NEWS

BUPD enforces "Knock and Lock Program"
By Kit Alvear
Staff Writer

Benedictine police recently began new efforts to focus on the safety and security of the University. Along with the recent addition of the speaker system, the “Knock and Lock Program” and allowing Resident Assistants to have walkie-talkies, the well-being of the students and faculty is constantly increasing.

The “Knock and Lock Program” consists of BU police patrolling the halls of the residential buildings and checking to see if any doors are open. For those rooms that they do find unlocked, they leave a note on the bed and lock the door behind them. According to police chief Mike Salatino, nine times out of ten. the police have to be called back to open the door again. This interaction between the students and the police allows for the opening of a communication channel. Police will make checks two or three days during a month, but often will not run it in consecutive months.

According to Salatino, much of the feedback has been positive. “It gave a chance to open a dialogue between students,” said Salatino, “Some students have actually said thanks for taking time to watch out.”

Junior Matt Harris adds, “It’s good because nobody locks their doors, and there has been a lot of stuff stolen this year.”

Despite the positive feedback, some students feel that it is a burden to them. “It’s more inconvenient because, most of the time, students have their doors left open because they are simply doing laundry or will be back in a very short time. By the police locking the doors, it is just locking students out of their own rooms,” said sophomore Gaby Mendez.

Other students have had issues of the police locking their doors right after they have left their room. Senior Alex Batten and his roommate left the door to their apartment unlocked to throw out the trash, passing by a police officer making his rounds. By the time they had come back, less than five minutes later, their room was locked. “We asked the police officer why he had locked the door and he told us it was for knock and lock,” said Batten. “I carry my key everywhere I go now!”

Another addition to the safety at Benedictine is the use of walkie-talkies by RAs. The RAs had approached the police and expressed their interest in being able to have walkie-talkies for easier access to help. The police encourage the RAs to use the radios daily. This program will continue to grow as more RAs come to Benedictine.

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