Students stage rally against campus police

Thursday, Oct. 21, 1999 | 11:09 a.m.

UNLV students say campus police are guilty of misconduct and are demanding changes in the department.

Hundreds of students attended a rally Wednesday, at which organizers produced a letter to university President Carol Harter containing five demands. Harter did not attend the rally.

Among the demands is a call for a committee, absent any participation of the police or university administration, to review police policies and procedures. The letter also demanded representation of students and civil rights groups in the newly formed Campus Police Advisory Board.

Other provisions of the letter would require diversity training for the police chief, officers and university administrators; campus police to walk or ride bicycles across campus rather than driving police cars across the sidewalks as is the current procedure; and public inspection of police records.

UNLV Police Chief David Hollenbeck said he is open to student suggestions, but questioned whether an oversight committee was allowed under state law.

Assemblyman Wendell Williams, D-Las Vegas, said there are no state laws prohibiting such a committee.

"They should just do it," Williams said.

Williams authored a law in 1993 requiring university campuses to report police actions and allegations of misconduct to lawmakers. He has been critical of the fact the university failed to follow that law from 1995 to 1999 and only recently submitted the reports. Williams was angered to find no mention of police misconduct in the reports.

"How do you become a first-class university when you have police on campus treating people like third-class citizens?" Williams asked.

He said failure of the university to file the reports was sending a poor message to students.