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One Friday night last winter, a Washington State University
police officer walked past the open door of a student’s room in
Stephenson East and looked in. She smiled and said “Hey,” and
received a cool “Hi” in reply. As soon as she walked past, the
student shut the door and clicked the lock.
Officer Dawn Daniels has come to expect a range of reactions as
she patrols the hallways of residence halls. Sometimes she gets a
friendly “Hello.” Other times, the doors slam.
In spring 2006, the right of Daniels and her fellow WSU officers
to patrol the halls came into question, when an officer following
his nose and his instincts discovered illegal drugs in student
rooms in two separate cases.
After the students’ attorneys filed motions challenging the
legality of the searches, Whitman County Superior Court judge David
Frazier ’73 determined that the officers’ presence in the dorms was
a violation of the University’s own policy—that no one other than
residents and their guests are allowed on the residential floors of
the building. The judge ruled that students had a “reasonable
expectation of privacy in the corridor/hallway” that was violated
by the institution of the patrols. On that basis the cases were
thrown out.
This wasn’t the first time police presence in WSU residence
halls had been tested. In 1978, a police search of a WSU dorm room
resulted in the arrest of two students for drug possession. The
case, Washington v. Chrisman, made it all the way to the
U.S. Supreme Court, setting nationwide precedence for police
searches in college dorms.
The incident involved an officer catching a student carrying a
bottle of gin. The officer approached the student and asked for
proof that he was of legal age to possess the alcohol. The student
didn’t have his identification, so the officer accompanied him back
to his dorm room to get ID. There, from the doorway, the officer
spotted what looked like marijuana seeds and a pipe. That led to a
search of the room and the discovery of more marijuana and some
LSD. Both the student and his roommate were arrested, charged, and
convicted. As with the more recent cases, the students’ attorneys
challenged the legality of the search, citing the students’
Fourth-Amendment right to be protected from unreasonable searches
and seizures.
The Washington State Supreme Court determined the officer had no
right to enter the room without a warrant, a decision that the U.S.
Supreme Court reversed in 1982. The majority opinion, written by
Justice Warren E. Burger, argued that since the first student was
under arrest, the officer had the right to accompany him to his
room and did not need a warrant to seize the contraband in plain
view.
Now the issue of police in WSU’s residence halls has made news
again. Frazier’s ruling caused the criminal charges to be dropped
and at the same time forced the University to suspend dorm patrols
last fall. The following winter the WSU Board of Regents changed
campus rules to allow University employees, including maintenance
workers and police officers, access to the semi-private halls.
But by spring 2007, when police were increasing their presence
in the hallways and community spaces, many students were no longer
used to seeing officers in their halls. Some complained that the
patrols were there to catch them partying. Joe Fortunato, a junior
who was running for ASWSU president, campaigned on the issue. He
said students are uncomfortable with the notion of the police
patrolling where they live, though they hadn’t been outspoken about
it. “I don’t have the police in my house patrolling between my
bedroom and bathroom,” he said. “I can see where they’re coming
from.”
Carolyn Long, an associate professor in political science at WSU
Vancouver who focuses on civil liberties issues, says she could see
how the new rule allowing police in the halls could create the
possibility of fishing expeditions, with officers trolling for
illegal activity like underage drinking. Still, police can often go
places the general public can’t, and they can make a good argument
for doing so in the interest of public safety, she says.
It’s a timely issue, says Long, especially since
Fourth-Amendment protection nationwide has dropped precipitously
over the last two decades. Interpretations of what is reasonable
have changed, she says. In 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that
evidence collected in a case in which police failed to knock and
announce before searching a residence could be used in a criminal
case. “There has been a complete shift in the court’s perspective,”
says Long. Under the Warren court of the 1960s, very few searches
took place without a warrant, and evidence collected during an
illegal search could not be admitted.
In contrast to the national trend, Washington law offers
individuals greater protection, she says. The state has a very
narrow exception for warrantless searches.
To be clear, though, WSU officers are not in the hallways
looking for problems, says Officer Daniels. “The patrols are pretty
much there just to be seen,” she says. Without the WSU regents’
revision of campus rules to allow University employees in the
residence halls, student resident advisers were the only ones
watching out for the safety of students. “The students are good
kids, for the most part,” she says. “But there’s all kinds of
things that happen in the halls. If we weren’t there, things could
get out of control.”
—Annette Ticknor '07 and Hannelore
Sudermann
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