Once again, the City Council recently showed its disregard for the many students it represents by proposing the city force universities to report the names of all its students living off campus to the Police Department. While councilors believe the move would help police reduce criminal behavior committed by college students, the violation of students’ rights that would result from this measure does not warrant such a proposal.
The measure assumes all college students are threats to the community, an unfair representation of a mostly law-abiding community integral to the city of Boston. It would allow the police department to single out college students in its policing efforts.
Indeed, the measure mirrors racial profiling, which allows police officers to pull over Black or Hispanic drivers on the simple basis that minority drivers are more likely to be criminal offenders. These councilors would not dare to initiate a racial profiling measure for the police department, but this measure involves the same discriminatory methods with a different target group.
Many Boston University students move off campus to escape the restrictions imposed upon them by the school. It is unfair that students be put under surveillance while other residents are not.
Besides the obvious violation of residents’ rights, the act does not seem to be necessary. Police can find out the names and contact information of students who break the law as soon as they arrest them or enter the violators’ apartment. Because police officers can get the names of students very easily on their own, it is clear that the city wants the list so they can monitor students’ apartments for possible incidents.
Out of interest for the rights of its students, Boston University should stand up to the City Council and openly express its concern with the proposal. The university has already protected the rights of its students last year, when it refused to give the names of its students to the Recording Industry Association of America unless it got subpoenaed.
This measure illustrates once again what city government thinks of college students. The thousands of college students in Boston are the key to the city’s economic prosperity and have fueled the lucrative high-tech industries that made Boston the financial center it has become. Considering the role of students in the city, the Council should give more respect to college students. The best way to give students the respect they deserve is to treat them the same way they treat other Boston residents.
Police officers should arrest college students whenever they break the law. But they should not watch and target college students in case a student might some day break a law. The first brings justice to lawbreakers; the second violates the rights of mostly innocent students.
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