One
of the reasons there are so few complaints against the Foot
Patrol most certainly is the difficulty of obtaining an official
complaint form. While the UCSB police chief quickly produced
a university form upon request, several days of search at both
the Foot Patrol office and the Sheriff's Department produced
only evasive answers. The most certain thing, however, is that
you can't find one at the Foot Patrol office.
Even though all police officers may now receive, "community
relations" training at the police academy, there is still
a concern that Foot Patrol officers should receive training
that is specifically relevant to the problems currently found
in Isla Vista. The concern is illustrated in the criticism voiced
by some Isla Vista residents.
"They seem to go out of their way to harass people,"
said one 17-year-old resident who sail he's been brought into
the Foot Patrol office for questioning six times without being
charged with a crime.
"Once they get to know someone, they automatically start
hassling him," he said.
This same person has friends who allegedly have been beaten
up with nightsticks far beyond any need to restrain them for
questioning. These incidents go unreported because the youths
are afraid of retribution later.
"After all, we have to live here," he concluded.
Many women have complained that Foot Patrol officers were not
doing their part to limit the kinds of sexual abuse during Isla
Vista's Halloween celebrations of the last few officer years.
In 1987, a citizens committee called "Red Alert" was
initiated to perform much of that function. While the Red Alert
people felt that they had accomplished quite a bit, the head
of the Foot Patrol at the time dismissed their efforts as "relatively
harmless."
Cheri Gerse of the UCSB Women's Center says that her staff provides
training to UCSB officers regarding rape prevention and sensitivity,
while the Santa Barbara Rape Crisis Center does much the same
for the Sheriff's Department. "While I've found that the
officers are very professional in their investigative capacity,
some handle our sensitivity training better than others,"
Gerse told the Free Press. "It depends a lot on what's
going on in their personal lives."
Rape is always under-reported to law enforcement agencies.
Gerse says that there are probably 10 to 20 times more rapes
than ever get reported. "We did a study recently that indicated
there are between three and ten date rapes each week on just
the campus properties," she said.
The Foot Patrol has not gone without its share of public embarrassment
either. In 1983, a formal complaint was filed against members
of the Foot Patrol by the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity alleging
that several off-duty officers fired bottle rockets and threw
firecrackers at the fraternity's house on Cordova Road. The
complaint also stated that the offi\cers were drinking beer
inside the Foot Patrol office and continued to shoot off the
fireworks despite receiving complaints from members of the fraternity.
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