University needs to handle ‘persons of interest’ situations with greater care

These past few years have caused us, as a nation, to re-examine our conscience regarding the way we interact with each other.

The heightened tensions between members of different racial communities in the United States are partially due to the way law enforcement agencies, and government agencies in general, are handling sensitive matters with regards to people within minority communities.

Recently, local authorities in Vermillion, including University of South Dakota officials, investigated two sexual assault reports involving some students and what seemed to be some persons of interest, who were declared to not be USD students.

The university promptly sent out an email to the entire student body with pictures of those that they said police were seeking to question. The pictures seemed to be obtained from social media outlets. Despite whatever protocol can be cited, the university’s actions were premature and caused more harm than good.

Here’s the problem with the email – there was no call to action.

The university was not asking for the public’s help in identifying the “persons of interest,” and they were not asking for information about the case.

Sending out that mass email to the student body accomplished nothing more than causing fear and panic among the population.

Instead of feeling like the matter was being handled properly by the authorities, many students responded to the situation with suspicion and fear of their fellow students.

The community did not emerge from this situation stronger, but weaker. The school could have chosen other avenues to handle this situation.

Whether or not it was intended, the national conversation concerning race entered this situation.

While the university and University Police Department were probably acting with the best of intentions and did not see this as a matter of race, the situation on the ground and the unintended consequences of their actions have led to an atmosphere of increased racism on campus.

After everyone saw the pictures of the three, nameless individuals who were never even declared suspects in the matter (and one has since been cleared of any connection), students were consciously or more likely subconsciously looking at every black individual that walked by and wondering whether or not they were dangerous.

The school psyche shifted from being cautious in every situation and taking every precaution to be safe in every setting and around any individual to one of selective caution.

Ultimately, public safety should drive all decisions made by those in power. Minority populations are sometimes responsible for crimes and they need to be investigated.

Also, The Volante in no way wants to undermine the process of making sure people report sexual assaults and how those reports are handled by the police.

Sometimes calling attention to physical characteristics can make the job of the police easier by employing the help of the public in finding wanted individuals.

In a situation such as the one that happened at USD, though, where minority populations are scarce and diversity is lacking, prematurely sending an email to the entire student population with pictures of three black men just induced more problems than it solved.

The policy should be re-examined in light of future of incidents.