UNLV police accused of abuse of authority

Thursday, Sept. 30, 1999 | 11:22 a.m.

UNLV campus police are failing to police themselves, the executive director of the local American Civil Liberties Union said.

"We have received repeated complaints from students, faculty and staff regarding what they see as a pattern and practice of abuse of authority," Gary Peck of the Southern Nevada chapter said this morning. "There is a pervasive tendency of the campus police to push the edge of the envelope and go beyond."

The latest complaint involves a 25-year-old student of the Community College of Southern Nevada who claims she was abused by police at a recent Hootie and the Blowfish concert at UNLV.

Denise Jaramillo, 25, who works for the school newspaper The Coyote, said she was allowed backstage at the Thomas and Mack concert by opening singer Dave Wakeline to take pictures and write a story for her newspaper.

"I was taking pictures of Hootie and the Blowfish from the side of the stage when someone on the crew told me I wasn't allowed to take them," Jaramillo said. "I took one more and they yelled at me and told me they were calling the police.

"The next thing I know UNLV police get there and they handcuff me and drag me down a hall to a holding tank."

Jaramillo said she was pushed down once she reached the Thomas and Mack police office and treated roughly. She got bruises on her arms and swelled wrists from the handcuffs.

"Anyone who who claims this is an isolated incident is simply burying their head in the sand," Peck said. "It is a long-standing problem."

Complaints range from disrespect and discourtesy to physical jostling, according to Peck.

Often the complaints involve race, but he said those are not exclusive issues.

Peck said the abuse has been going on for years.

"That's why the Legislature passed a law several years ago," Peck said.

A bill sponsored by Assemblymen Morse Arberry Jr. and Wendell P. Williams and passed in 1993 requires the Board of Regents to provide a report on university system police no later than April 15 on years when the Legislature is in session.

In 1995 the report was filed but no report was filed in 1997 or this year.

Arberry and Williams were not available for comment this morning.

"My own take is that the police have done a terrible job of policing themselves and the university has done a terrible job of policing them," Peck said.

He said the university needs to develop a system that creates "proper supervision and responsibility."

UNLV Vice President of Student Affairs Bob Ackerman says he doesn't know how the oversight occurred.

"I don't know how it fell through the cracks," he said. "We've always tried to comply with reporting requirements, but we just didn't know about this."

Since learning of the required report, Ackerman, whose responsibilities include UNLV's police force, and his staff have sent a report on activities of 1997 through this year and are putting together a report for 1995 through 1997.

The detailed report by law should include the campus' annual security reports, crime statistics, number of officers in the department, the department's activities, training programs and complaints.

Rick Bennett, UNLV's director of government relations, will ensure such an oversight doesn't happen again, Ackerman said.

UNLV has been taking steps to make sure that communication between university police and the community becomes a priority by forming a new police advisory board, Ackerman said.

"The idea of the board was approved last year, and now we're about a week or so away from getting the group together," he said. "We recognize that police have a serious job to do and we recognize that they sometimes make mistakes.

"The advisory board will provide a mechanism so that if there are problems in the police department they can be brought to the surface."

The board will include UNLV faculty, students, staff and administrators as well as a seat for the university police department and a law enforcement official from outside UNLV. Membership will rotate yearly with new board members being elected every March.

Peck said that while the review board is a nice start, he is still distressed by the incident at last Thursday's Hootie and the Blowfish concert.

Acting University Police Chief Don Drake confirmed that Jaramillo was taken into custody Thursday night before being released into Wakeline's custody.

"Basically what occurred was she (Jaramillo) was backstage taking pictures and the band's manager tried to evict her, starting a scene," Drake said. "Our officers responded and the manager wanted her arrested because she was violating the band's injunction that allows them to choose who photographs them and who doesn't."

Drake said that Jaramillo was taken to the security office so that police could separate the two parties and hear both sides of the story.

When it was learned that the manager didn't have a copy of the injunction with him, Jaramillo was released into Wakeline's custody, Drake said.

Jaramillo has yet to file a complaint against university police, but said she plans to.