After the Boston University Police Department arrested a male from Quincy for assault on the corner of Babcock Street and Commonwealth Avenue last weekend, students said that incidents like this blur the lines between city police and campus police jurisdiction.
“I don’t have a good understanding of how and when BUPD handles a crime and when Boston police handle things instead,” said Gabby Cudney, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Robert Molloy, captain of BUPD, said that if any BUPD officers see someone in the street in a BU area stealing, assaulting another person or committing similar crimes, the officers can always take action and arrest someone if necessary.
“Boston had jurisdiction for the assault this weekend because it took place on the street, but we’re still allowed and have authority on the street, so we took action when we saw it,” Molloy said in an interview.
Molloy said the question of which department should cover some crimes, especially those in Kenmore Square, becomes confusing because the area is a mix of BU properties and unaffiliated properties. BUPD handles cases “on an ad hoc basis” depending on the situation, Molloy said.
Major incidents off-campus, but still in the area of campus, are typically covered by the Boston Police Department.
“Say for example the 7-11 down on Buswell and Park Drive is robbed at gunpoint. We’d wait and let BPD investigate that because, though it’s in our area, it’s technically off campus in their jurisdiction, and it’s a major incident.”
However, BUPD handles all serious crimes directly on BU property without the help of BPD unless they’re called for backup, Molloy said. Crimes far from campus must be covered by BPD, even if a BU student is the suspect of the victim.
Members of BUPD are sworn Suffolk County sheriffs, who are technically limited to the area BU’s property in the county, he said. The state police give authority to BUPD officers, but the limits of jurisdiction are defined precisely as BU’s campus and any streets adjacent to BU.
“We may help Boston to identify a student or BU employee if they need it, but we don’t have any real authority in the city off campus,” Molloy said.
Officers at BU are by no means less trained than officers of Boston, according to the BUPD website. BUPD required new officers to complete a “rigorous” 22-week police academy.
Still, some students expressed wariness of BUPD’s covering and investigating serious crimes without BPD’s assistance.
“I would probably rather Boston police to arrive on scene because I feel like it would make it more serious,” Cudney said.
Another student, CAS senior Kim Clemens, said she hopes that BUPD reaches out to BPD for repetitive crimes involving more victims.
“I’m not at all saying that BUPD is inexperienced, but I do think that a serious crime involving more [victims] should receive a better consensus,” she said. “Maybe BUPD has only a certain amount of data about a certain assault, where the Boston police can help and may have more developed data about tracking repetitive crimes.”
Sean Barley, a graduate student in the School of Theology, said his first instinct whether on or off campus would be to contact Boston police.
“In my experience with college campuses, the regular police are often more responsive than the campus police, so I’d probably reach out to BPD first,” he said, referring to his experiences at Old Dominion University and Howard University.
However, patrols conducted by BUPD, covering 132 acres of BU property and the surrounding area, are 24 hours a day, and emergency response time is “generally under three minutes” for all on-campus areas, according to the BUPD website.
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