The Boston Police Department has arrested more Boston College students this year than during the entire 2008-2009 academic year. This increase in arrests has been accompanied by an increase in the number and amount of fines as Boston Police seek to lower the number of noise complaints in the off-campus community.
Captain Frank Marcini of the Boston Police and commander of district 14 said that the reason for the increase is stricter law enforcement practices by the Boston Police. Mancini believes that this stricter enforcement has helped to lessen the number of noise complaints in the neighborhoods around BC.
Mancini has been commander of District 14, the Allston-Brighton district of Boston, for the past two years. "Last year, we tried to get students to comply with the law through education," he said. "We tried to get the message out that students had a responsibility to behave, since they are living in established neighborhoods."
Mancini believes that this approach worked, but only to an extent, and that something more needed to be done. "This year we decided to ratchet up enforcement of laws," he said. "I made it a priority to arrest in any cases involving illegal activity and alcohol."
While warnings have been prevalent in the past, officers are now refraining from lenient practices, Mancini said. "In the past we may have given a warning, but this year I instructed our officers that the students have already been warned and they will be locked up for all arrestable offences," he said. "This is a message that students are now going to be held to the standard that we hold to every other adult. You won't get special consideration for being a student."
This new enforcement policy has resulted in significant increase in the numbers of students arrested and fined in the BC community, and in other universities' off-campus communities. BC is not the only university in District 14. Boston University and other institutions, such as the Massachusetts College of Art, are also in this district and have seen a similar increase in arrests in their off campus communities.
"We have arrested over 30 college students in District 14 this academic year thus far," Mancini said. "While I don't have the exact numbers, I believe that last academic year there were only 10 student arrests the whole year." Of these arrests, eight involved BC students. This increase in arrests has also been accompanied by an increase in the number of fines and written citations given. This academic year, over 151 civil ordinance violations were issued, amounting to over $20,000 in fines.
Mancini believes that this increase in arrests and fines is directly responsible for the lower numbers of noise complaints seen in the Allston-Brighton community, compared to past years. Noise complaints have dropped by 20 to 25 percent from 2007 to this year, he said.
"We have also seen a decrease in the number of complaints about our students over the past three years," said Brent Ericson, associate dean for community standards in the Office of the Dean for Student Development. Ericson said he would attribute some of this reduction in problems between neighbors and BC students to new educational programs in place for students. "We have made more conscientious efforts to educate and to address off-campus student's behavior and get more students involved with off-campus communities," he said. "Programs such as Eagle Ambassadors and the Breakfast Club have improved relations between the BC off-campus community and neighbors."
Mancini has also participated in some educational activities at BC. Last year, he was a member of a panel for students intending to move off campus. "We always try first to get a voluntary compliance with the law," Mancini said. "We want to give students an opportunity to learn first from educational activities."
The recent increase in the number of arrests is just another step in the process of reducing conflict between the neighbors and the BC off-campus community, Mancini said. "Sometimes the best education is a pair of cold handcuffs on your wrists," he said.
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