Campus police
Will campus police do a better job? Photo: SHAFIQUL ISLAM KAJOL/ DRIK NEWS
Jagannath University became the latest venue of violence that turned Old Dhaka into a battle zone leaving at least 100 innocent people including 20 female students injured, as well as damage of 20 vehicles and office equipment. The students, who were demonstrating to recover 12 of their dormitories, illegally occupied by powerful people, criminals, police and Dhaka City Corporation, faced brutal police actions lobbing around 120 teargas canisters, charging truncheons to disperse them and arresting 10 students. Organising a demonstration program by the students in a bid to restore 12 grabbed dormitories has some logic, as there is a severe crunch in student housing in the university, but their engagement in violence is condemnable. But there are reasons to believe that the students were given a very raw deal in this particular case by the university authorities who should be held responsible for disregarding the students' genuine needs. The general student body pays a very high price for campus violence losing academic sessions, as the university authorities usually choose the escapist way of closing the university sine die for subsiding tension. The battle between the agitated students and police in a very sensitive place like varsity campus sent a strong and clear message to the government once again that handling of student community calls for care and compassion, patience and prudence, not force. Coercive approach always proved counterproductive, particularly when student sentiments are concerned. Brutal police actions in the female student halls of DU at the dead hours of night in 2002, created such a strong public resentment across the country that compelled the government to remove the vice chancellor to calm down the situation. Many senior teachers of DU were beaten up severely by the police as they protested such brutal police action in the female student halls. Police also handled very brutally another agitation program on the DU campus in May 2005, following the tragic death of a DU student under the wheel of a bus at Shahbagh crossing. Police beat up mercilessly the mourner students entering the campus. The relationship between the students and law enforcers has deteriorated significantly after the incident at DU in August 2007. Not only the students and teachers of the universities, many conscious citizens of the country also think that law enforcers should not be allowed to enter the university campuses for handling student agitation. Such a situation should be handled carefully, not with bullets and batons. The government was contemplating formation of campus police to provide a safe and secured campus environment to the country's public universities, after the violence at DU in August 2007 that spread like wild fire to other campuses and triggered an unfortunate episode, compelling the government to close down all universities and colleges in the major cities and to impose curfew to crush the violence. The idea for forming campus police to meet the safety and security requirements of the DU campus community was also discussed in the DU senate meetings several times in the past. But no concrete steps were taken so far to shape up such police, considering its sensitivity. To provide a safe, secure and orderly campus environment conducive to the successful pursuit of educational opportunities and accomplishments, the public universities of the country need police capable of establishing a professional and trusting relationship with the students, teachers, and other staff. The campus police, either armed special police or unarmed security squad, should be quite different from the conventional police forces and should have some special characteristics that suit the sentiments of the students. The campus police, composed of educated and enthusiastic people, should be given proper training to make them skilful in all security tactics. There are many universities across the world which have their own police to provide a safe and secure campus. The Howard University in Washington DC, for instance, has a very inventive Campus Police Dept which works cooperatively with the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police and other District of Columbia and Federal government agencies. The Howard University campus police exercise full police powers to arrest offenders. A popular expectation from the new government is that it will bring back peace to the university campuses, removing root causes of violence and concomitant sine die closure of universities for benefit of our future generation. Other than the bitter feud between rival students groups, the interference of police in student agitation is a major cause of campus violence, as the capacity for rational handling of such a situation is found severely missing among the police. Therefore, formation of campus police may be the best option for tackling campus violence.
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