Davenport police consider using undercover cops in classrooms

[Bluzmann57]

I'm sure everybody's heard by now about the threat on the UNI campus and subsequent lockdown of several dorms. Well, in reaction to that and other campus shootings, Davenport police have proposed to place undercover cops in classrooms in exchange for free tuition. The cops will be armed, not in uniform and equipped with cell phones which will interact with the schools security systems. So far, Saint Ambrose and Scott Community College have not commited to the idea. And quite frankly, I'm not sure about this idea. On the one hand, it certainly may be nice to have armed police on campus for security, but is it really neccessary? I'm sure there are police officers who would leap at the chance to further their education for free. For a link, go to www.kwqc.com. There is a poll question on the site about this subject as well.

[rurallib]

1. This bothers me.

The thought that the guy next to me may be armed. What is to prevent him from going off? What if I make an offhanded remark that in some way can construed as a threat or an arrestable offense. Suppose I leaned over and said - 'geez, I wish Bush could be dealt with' or something like that. Zing I am on the FBI list.
Bushco has made me paranoid.

[bazoona]

2. As a cop....

I don't have a problem with certified officers carrying off duty weapons on campus in light of past events. I attended the U of I and Kirkwood and never carried my weapon because I thought the risk of someone seeing a concealed weapon and causing an incident just wasn't worth dealing with. Unlike a lot of people I am not in love with my gun, so I never checked to see if there was any written policy on this, but I felt if the University Police couldn't carry weapons I wouldn't either. Now I might feel differently about it.


The thing I don't agree with is providing free tuition for officers. Just being in a class and being armed does not mean they should receive benefits that other students aren't entitled to. A police officer has a duty to act to protect life on or off duty. There are plenty of officers attending college classes anyway and there is no reason they shouldn't be paying student loans just like the rest of us, unless they would like to make it retroactive and I can claim for my time in classes then I'm all for it : )

[cyberswede]

3. Nice response!

Thanks for the perspective.

"unless they would like to make it retroactive and I can claim for my time in classes then I'm all for it : )"
- LOL!