As young people, it is practically our job to be major screwups sometimes, breaking the rules and sometimes even the law. But sometimes these silly screwups can get serious when cops or other authority figures become involved and we have to face the consequences of our immature behavior. Here are a couple of situations where students found themselves in hot water. We talked to Binghamton’s New York State University Police to learn about the possible legal ramifications of their actions.
Entering your room
Sophomore Redmond Hill was caught playing beer pong in his room with some friends last semester. Around midnight, his resident assistant came knocking at his door to find out what was going on in his room. When he refused to let her in, the RA threatened to call the police. Intimidated by the prospect of police involvement, he opened the door. “They were astonished to know we were playing beer pong in our room and they wanted to know where we got the table and the beer,” Hill said. Students who were written up for the incident had to meet with the resident director of a different community who had searched for incriminating pictures of them on Facebook.com. Each had to testify against the other separately. They each got 30 hours of community service and 2 1/2 years of probation.
While this seems to be a common scenario for Binghamton University students, no one seems to really know how to react when the cops come a-knockin’. You’re playing beer pong in your room, or maybe doing something else you know you shouldn’t be doing, and there’s a knock at the door. Do you have to open it?
Legally, you are not required to open your door for the police. According to Deputy Chief of Police Timothy Faughnan, “Students’ rights are the same as any other citizen enjoys: the right to be free from search and seizure.” He said that a student’s dorm room is considered to be the same as it would be in his/her own home. Because you can retain the same constitutional rights, you are not obligated to let anyone in.
There are, however, two exceptions to this rule.
1) If there is reason to believe that there is a serious risk to health or safety, like a fire.
2) If there is reason to believe a serious crime is being committed and the evidence could be destroyed in the time it takes to get a warrant. (This is reserved for much more serious crimes than just smoking marijuana.)
Chenango RD Christy Belew confirmed these rules, saying that the only time your RA/RD would be allowed to enter your room is, “If we feel that someone is actively being harmed.”
Deputy Chief Faughnan said that police officers will make every attempt to have you open the door, but if the student refuses to, they will not try to come through. They’ll write up a police report to describe exactly what happened, which is then passed on for Judicial Affairs or the Office of Residential Life to handle. Otherwise, they can enter only if a student actually gives them permission to do so, or if they have obtained a warrant. If they do legally enter your room and there are incriminating items in plain view (i.e. drugs or weapons), a student can be arrested and charged.
Now, what happens if you are caught outside in plain view smoking marijuana or in possession of alcohol?
Deputy Chief Faughnan said that the result in this case is influenced by a number of different variables, including how much marijuana or alcohol is present, the noise level and how the students react to the cops. Although you are obviously committing a crime, he said that students can help themselves because the officers’ judgment is based not only on the severity of the offense, but also the students’ cooperation. If a student doesn’t create any additional problems by running away, for example, the cop may take the offender’s behavior into consideration. In some cases students may even get off with just a warning.
As far as off-campus students are concerned, while the University Police Department sometimes works with the local police, it is usually up to the local departments to decide how off-campus issues are handled.
Drunken vandalism
Mechanical engineering student Scott Kart was coming back from State Street in an altered state — drunk. In his stupor, he made the enlightened decision to throw a stick at a first floor window, shattering it. Another student on the third floor spotted Kart’s friend close by and assumed he had broken the window and called the police. When the officer knocked on Kart’s door, he was nowhere to be found, which left his roommate to take the fall for his drunken action. A few days later, Kart’s guilt for getting his friend in trouble got the best of him and he went to the police to confess. He agreed to pay for the window, at the advice of his RA, and all charges were dropped.
According to Investigator Matthew Rossie, “The officer’s discretion is huge, but this is a good thing. You don’t want to be mandated because you want to be able to hear the circumstances first.” This gives the cops the ability to hear your story and then decide what the best course of action is, based on the events. So in the case of Scott Kart, who it seems intentionally threw the stick at the window, the situation turned out to be sticky. Rossie agreed that if the cops believe the damage was done intentionally, the person would be arrested and charged with criminal mischief. If the case goes to court, he would only have to pay for the damages, not endure any form of lasting punishment.
Parking Pass
Sophomore Raymond Lomp made what seemed like a harmless mistake. He put a parking pass on his car that wasn’t his because, at the time, he was not allowed to have a car on campus. One day Lomp found a boot on his car.
According to Rossie, in the case of Raymond Lomp, committing parking fraud would result in a ticket being issued to the perpetrator. Then the case would likely be passed on to Parking Services, unless it was a case of a stolen pass. At Parking Services, the parking privileges of the friend who owned the pass might be taken away. In this case there’s not much you can really do except suck it up and buy your own parking permit.
While these circumstances are all very different, the one thing that remains the same is that a student may be able to help his or herself by cooperating with the cops, especially if the incident was unintentional. Like Investigator Rossie said, the cops have the ability to consider the circumstances of every individual situation and make decisions based on their discretion. While we know that they are the authority, also consider that they are just doing their jobs and trying to keep you safe. Working with them will always be your best bet because they are not just out to get you. Deputy Chief Faughnan, who has been working at BU for 25 years, said that if he really didn’t like his job or the students, he wouldn’t have stayed around so long. So maybe the cops don’t like to bust us — but that probably doesn’t mean we will stop giving them reasons to do it.