Navigate Left
  • Damage to Pickup After Accident

    News

    Lane closed due to traffic accident at East Ninth and Bartlett Streets 

  • Arti-ji frying jalebis. Photo taken July 22 by Molly Myers.

    Food

    Arti’s jalebis: A life-changing Indian sweet 

  • Freshly harvested bok choi, baby spinach, cabbages and broccoli at a Wednesday Farmers Market from Lor’s Produce. Taken by Alina Babajko on March 13.

    Food

    Local produce benefits community and your health

  • My silver hero plant, in front of another variety of Scindapsus pictus. Taken by Heather Taylor on March 13.

    Opinion

    New growth: Reflections on houseplants and life

  • Right fielder Troy Kent making a play on a deep fly ball in the top of the sixth against San Marcos. Taken by Nathan Chiochios on March 17.

    Sports

    Wildcats drop series finale after an 8-run seventh inning from the Cougars

Navigate Right
Breaking News
Chico State's independent student newspaper

The Orion

Chico State's independent student newspaper

The Orion

Chico State's independent student newspaper

The Orion

University Police should proactively patrol downtown

Illustration by Liz Coffee
Illustration by Liz Coffee

Chico Police Department is grossly understaffed and is struggling to maintain order downtown. In response, it has requested that University Police expand their patrols to the downtown area.

Scared citizens have reported feeling uncomfortable walking the streets at night. Concerned shop owners have complained about groups of transients sleeping at their shopfronts, peeing on their walls. Reports of crime are on the rise, and local law enforcement is stretched thin.

On top of this, University Police must now start the search for a new chief of police.

Something is rotten in the region of downtown Chico, and it’s going to take more than Chico’s understaffed city cops to cut out the corruption.

University Police needs to partner with Chico Police Department in patrolling a one mile radius around campus for the sake of concerned and endangered students.

Chief of police Robyn Hearne has already expressed her apprehension in partnering campus cops with Chico Police Department. In her opinion, it’s important to remember that University Police has a specific purpose: keep an eye on the campus.

This is an oversimplified vision of University Police’s purpose.

Patrolling the campus is simply a means to an end, the end being protecting Chico State students.

While it makes sense for campus cops to convene on campus during the day when classes are in session, secluding themselves to university property at night defeats their own purpose.

Only 2,200 students live in on-campus housing. This means that, by sequestering its patrols to campus property, University Police is ignoring the vast majority of students who live off-campus.

Keeping in mind that most robberies, muggings, assaults and rapes happen off-campus and in people’s homes, it only makes sense that campus cops should extend their reach into the community.

Those who wish to keep University Police confined to the campus will likely raise priority concerns. They will wonder who is looking after students while the cops respond to phone calls about downtown fights, raging parties and hostile transient folk.

Who gets in downtown fights? Who hosts raging parties? Who gets accosted by hostile transient folk? Students do.

Hearne also stated that campus cops already partner with Chico Police Department, providing backup when asked. Providing backup isn’t the same as proactive patrols.

As if the expressed concerns of students, citizens and businesses weren’t enough, Chico Police Department has openly stated that it is understaffed, overwhelmed and in need of reinforcements.

It shouldn’t have to wait around for a more compliant campus chief of police to get the backup it needs.

Leave a Comment
More to Discover

Comments (0)

All The Orion Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *