
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, October 25, 1994                   TAG: 9410250078
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-6   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: RICK LINDQUIST STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD                                  LENGTH: Medium

TOWN-GOWN GROUP HEARS COMPLAINTS ABOUT POLICE

Student complaints about Radford police again dominated discussion at Monday's meeting of the City-University Joint Commission on Public Affairs. Radford University senior Nancy Singer told the committee police often overreact to complaints involving students, but are reluctant to act when students themselves complain.

Singer, who is chairwoman of the Student Affairs Council, said she was arrested in September for disorderly conduct after she questioned police actions at an off-campus party on Fairfax Street in a house her boyfriend, John Berardino, owns. She was not at the party, but lives nearby and went to the house to find out why police were there, she said.

Subsequently, she said when she complained about a loud party in the neighborhood, the same officer who had arrested her - Paul Tickle - issued noise violation tickets to those at a much smaller gathering next door, instead of investigating the large party she had called about.

Berardino complained to City Council earlier this year that police were too quick to issue noise violations at parties.

Assistant Police Chief Jonny Butler told Singer on Monday he was concerned that no one had answered her original complaint. He urged Singer and other students with gripes about their treatment by police to file formal complaints and promised they would be looked into. "We do want to know if there is a legitimate complaint about the actions of law enforcement officers," he said.

Last month, two university seniors voiced similar complaints about Tickle, claiming that he acted improperly when he broke up a daylight party Sept. 10 on Stockton Street.

Paul Harris, the university's vice president for student affairs, said Monday he followed up with city officials on the allegations. He said police perceptions were quite different from what the commission was told. "We really do need to keep both sides in mind," he said.

Janet Reeves, president of the Off-campus Student Council, said she has heard fellow students say they are so afraid of getting arrested for public drunkenness while walking home from parties that some drive instead. But Butler said intoxicated pedestrians are better off in jail, out of harm's way.

City Councilwoman Polly Corn urged better communication between students and law enforcement.

by CNB