Letter blasts BPD alcohol tactics

The Bloomington Police Department's tactics on alcohol arrests are unfair and fueling an adversarial relationship with students, the IU Student Association alleges in a letter sent to the BPD Monday.\nIUSA says the BPD has increased scrutiny of parties and arrested people walking home intoxicated -- creating an unsafe atmosphere.\nThe letter, written by members of the IUSA administration, calls on the BPD to promote a more constructive relationship with students.\n"It has been brought to our attention that many of the tactics used by the BPD go far beyond promoting safety," the letter says. "Many students have also voiced concern over the amplified scrutiny by the Bloomington Police Department related to parties and the consumption of alcoholic beverages."\nBPD Sgt. William Parker said his department doesn't have enough officers to wait around on IU students walking back drunk from bars.\n"Officers just go from one call to the other," Parker said. "We don't have the time or the number of officers to do that sort of thing."\nParker said that unlike some police departments, BPD officers do not have monthly arrest quotas to fill.\nIUSA President Bill Gray said the BPD should be more open to working with IUSA, which represents IU's student body.\n"We hope that they would take a greater concern with students needs and respond in a positive fashion," Gray said Monday evening.\nGray said it is the police's role to be responsive to the community and BPD is not doing so. \n"We (IU) represent a large part of the community," he said.\nThe letter specifically discusses students traveling home from bars or parties on foot and then being busted.\n"... IUSA questions the arresting of students walking home under the influence. These students have made a wise and conscientious decision to walk in lieu of getting behind the wheel of a car," the letter says. "By seeking out these individuals, the BPD is creating an environment that is not only unsafe, but unfair."\nGray said arresting students who travel on foot has a negative effect, causing more students to drive drunk.\n"The biggest problem is enforcement of public intoxication," Gray said. "Arresting students isn't the issue. The problem is if you overarrest, they're going to change their behavior. So they're going to drive, which is worse."\nGray said BPD should be more focused on keeping students, as well as the community, safe.\n"People are generally afraid of walking at night on campus and around town," he said. "Safety should be of paramount importance, before anything else." \nGray said that the IU Police Department has been more responsive to students than BPD. "They care what we have to say," he said.\nIUPD Lt. Jerry Minger said he believes his department has a good relationship with IU's students because his department works primarily for the students.\nBut he said he doesn't think BPD would have the resources to focus on students walking home intoxicated just to make arrests.\n"It's not something most police departments do," Minger said. "It's somewhat unlikely because most police departments don't have the resources to wait outside bars."\nLast school year, junior Zack Hirschfeld was arrested by BPD after walking out of Kilroy's on Kirkwood, 502 Kirkwood Ave., while calling a cab to take him and his father home, rather than driving.\n"A cop came up to me really out of nowhere," Hirschfeld said. \nHirschfeld said he was not intoxicated at the time and even asked the BPD officer to give him a breathalyzer test, but the officer wouldn't breathalyze him and ordered him to take sobriety tests.\nHirschfeld said he passed each sobriety test, but was arrested and held at BPD's station for the night.\nThe IUSA letter also addressed the recent poll by the Princeton Review naming IU the top party school in the country. \n"A true poll of the students would probably be received with a very different reaction. Please do not further penalize the students and this University based on a report marred with questionable data," the letter states.\nThe letter is IUSA's first contact with BPD about the issue. The letter was signed by: Gray; vice president of administration Judd Arnold; vice president of congress Vanessa Sea; and treasurer Blair Greenberg.\nThe letter was addressed to Michael Hostetler, BPD chief of police.\nHostetler, reached at home Monday night, said he would have no comment until he reviews the letter, which he has not yet received.\nGray and Arnold said the issues discussed in the letter are something they have been working on since last year.\n"A lot of people care about this and we're going to continue to work at it," Gray said.\nView the letter here