Split Second Decisions

Eleanor Harte
March 11, 2013

Working in a college town can't be easy for police officers, but Amherst Police Detective Jamie Reardon told Mary Carey's Journalism 300 students on Monday that the most important thing to keep in mind is common sense. The 13 students gathered in the Amherst Police Department to hear Reardon talk about his duties as a police officer, how he interacts with members of the press, and how the Amherst Police Department deals with college students.

The department has over 80 policies for dealing with situations that may occur, and the officers are responsible for knowing all of them.

Reardon explained how the officers dealt with the "Blarney Blowout", a large St. Patrick's Day themed gathering that occurred at the Townhouse Apartments in Amherst on Saturday. He referenced two videos of the event that are circulating the internet. "There's no expectation of privacy when you're in a public place," Reardon said, adding that he's filmed all the time. The Amherst Police Department's press release of the event says that there were over 1,500 students gathered in the quad area. The police made six arrests. "Our main interest is in public safety." Reardon said. "We wanted people to disperse from the area."

"When talking to the press we have to protect people's constitutional rights," Reardon said, "and we don't release someone's name until they're brought before the court and arraigned." After that, the information of arrests is public knowledge. However, ordinary citizens don't get to know everything. "We don't like to release information that's going to put anyone in danger or compromise our investigation," he said. In addition, the department has a policy of only releasing information when they're sure it's accurate.

Victim information is almost always kept confidential. "We don't name victims of crimes, especially for retaliation reasons," Reardon said. "We would hardly ever release the victim's name. I'd be hard pressed to think of a good reason to do so."

The department has press meetings every weekday morning, and when they have a legitimate reason to ask media for help, such as when they need to find someone, they will ask media for help finding the person. "If we have their picture, we can send that to the media and ask them to release it with a 'Have you seen this person?' That's if we have a reason to do so, if we know the person did something," Reardon explained. "There has to be a reason that we do things."

The department brings in extra staff when they know big events are going to be happen that might require police presence. "We coordinate with the university police, we talk to landlords, we sometimes go to apartments and warn the residents that we will arrest them if something happens," Reardon said. When big events like the Blarney Blowout occur, the department often tows the cars in the area if they belong to people partying. "We get drunk drivers off the street before they get in their cars."