Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40AMERICAN POLICE BEAT: AUGUST 2016 35 New York City Police Department (NYPD) Commissioner William Bratton recently joined the ASPCA® (The Ameri- can Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) to highlight the importance of pet adoption by inviting a special canine to join him on the job at One Police Plaza for “Take Your Dog to Work Day.” I n Collingswood, New Jersey, police are re- sponding to a remark- able number of calls from the local school dis- trict. According to a recent ar- ticle from NewJersey.com, Collingswood police in this town of just two square miles were recently averaging five calls a day at local schools. This included the incident that went viral recently when police were called to a third-grade class party after adults apparently thought a kid made a racist com- ment. It turns out he was talking about “brownies” which were being served at the party. School officials say they were directed by the Cam- den County Prosecutor’s Office recently to “report all incidents to the Colling- swood Police Department to have them investigate.” If you’re an SRO or have young kids in school you can make an educated guess about the percentage of in- cidents that would actually require a police response. “The prosecutor’s office now defines almost every issue as a ‘potentially crimi- nal issue,’” school board president David Routzahn wrote in a letter sent to par- ents. “It is unfathomable to us that the CCPO believes that having uniformed po- lice officers responding to incidents of name-calling or a second-grade playground shove is appropriate for the children or taxpayers of Collingswood.” Needless to say parents are up in arms. They’ve taken to social media to voice their concerns and have started collecting signatures for a petition to make changes. “I am signing this be- cause my seven-year-old has taken a month to get over the trauma of ‘being arrested’ for rough housing with his friend,” wrote one petitioner. “He was wrong but to allow a child to be- lieve they are being arrested by the police because of a mandatory investigation is frightening.” Five calls a day? Seems like a lot Poorly chosen words in local statute leads to total craziness “I am signing this because my seven- year-old has taken a month to get over the trauma of ‘being arrested’ for rough housing with his friend. To allow a child to believe they are being arrested by the police because of a mandatory investigation is frightening.” t
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