Nomination For A Hero Badge

What is the difference between Campus Cops and babysitters?
Nothing.

This is a cautionary tale for any parent that has sent a child to college and put them up in a dorm. Ideally, the young scholar gets the full experience of college life. Some students will get the college death experience, instead. The Kiddie Cops screwed up. They had an assist from the college administration. Here is the story as reported by yahoo:

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/report-slain-utah-track-athlete-lauren-mccluskey-repeatedly-called-university-salt-lake-city-police-report-harasser-225701857.html

A college senior entered into an ill advised relationship with a serial sex offender. She wised up and terminated the relationship after a month. The spurned lover wouldn’t take no for an answer. What followed was harassment, stalking and extortion. Then he killed her.

The Kiddie cops said they had no reason to believe that she was in physical danger. Her repeated calls to the University PD imparted no sense of urgency. Her calls to Salt Lake City PD did no good. She was a student and a resident on campus. She had already made a report to the kiddie cops. Salt Lake City PD deferred to the University PD. The real police weren’t about to get into a turf war with the kiddie cops.

Here is what the University said after conducting an internal review:


University police conducted an internal review after her death, which the university said was not the result of any individual mistakes. The review also found university officers didn’t know how to look up criminal background or parole information.
“The review team’s report identified gaps in training, awareness and enforcement of certain policies rather than lapses in individual performance,” the university said,

via CNN.

Keep these two quotes in mind.


“There was no indication from Lauren to us at any point that he was threatening physical harm,” University Police Chief Dale Brophy said during a press conference in late October. 

University Police Chief Dale Brophy

Allow me to translate. Students at the University are constantly breaking up and making up. If we treated every lover’s spat that resulted in threats, violence and intimidation like a criminal offense it would screw up our Title IX reporting stats. We take a report and when the student stops bugging us we reclassify the offense report to a miscellaneous incident. No fuss, no muss and most importantly no negative statistics.

There is so much here that was unsaid but raises a red flag to real police. This is gonna take a while. A first step in any domestic violence, boyfriend/girlfriend break up is a risk assessment. Chief Brophy, in effect, admitted that no investigation was done. The kiddie cops didn’t know how to check the suspect’s criminal record. How does one go about conducting a risk assessment without verifying the information at hand?

The victim apparently learned of the suspect’s criminal history. Presumably she brought that fact to the attention of the Kiddie Cops. Did she make it up? Could this be a clue as to future danger? Checking the allegation is a step towards confirming her credibility and determining a threat level. It wasn’t done, because the kiddie cops didn’t know how.

I worked in a college town. The respective administrations, college and city did not cooperate in information exchange as well as they should have. The line officers for both departments found a way to transmit information back and forth.

In the age of the computer it is even simpler. An inter-agency cooperation agreement, a dedicated terminal and a subscription fee and the information flows. It could be that the University has so alienated local law enforcement that barriers to the official access to databases is banned.

I said that the college administration likely abetted the kiddie cops. When Ms. McCluskey made her initial outcry she hit the feminazi trifecta, sex, harassment and revenge porn. No way this complaint was going to the court system. The feminazis have a kangaroo that needs feeding. I suspect that the kiddie cops had standing orders to refer such complaints to the inquisition. Never mind that the suspect was not a student and not subject to their whims.

Had the Kiddie Cops investigated Ms. McCluskey’s allegations the previous conviction and repeated revocations of his parole would have elevated the risk quotient. It isn’t a stretch to conclude a previously convicted rapist would be upset to be “disrespected by a mere woman.” His pattern of behavior towards her could lead a reasonable officer to conclude that the suspect’s presence on campus was with bad intent. That intent would seem to meet the requirements of Utah’s criminal trespass statute. In other words, he was subject to arrest on sight. But that didn’t happen.

Oh well, every movement needs a martyr, welcome to the club Ms. McCluskey.