Department of Public Safety officers who have recently been confiscating unattended laptops in Lauinger Library have not been acting in line with Department of Public Safety policy, according to Associate Director of DPS John Smith, who said the informal practice will end immediately.
“While I appreciate their motivation to protect the students from victimization, the practice is not consistent with DPS policy and has been ordered to be ceased immediately,” Smith wrote in an email.
On November 2, Smith wrote in an email that the policy of confiscating unattended valuables was a long-standing DPS policy. Smith reversed his policy after investigating; the practice of holding confiscated items at the guard desk without notifying students does not conform to DPS procedures for securing lost items.
“If there is a compelling need for DPS to secure any property, they will complete both an incident report and a property record, and they will secure the item at DPS headquarters,” Smith said.
Students and the Georgetown University Student Association, which has recently questioned the policy, were glad to hear of the end of the informal practice.
“The funny thing is ,kids would come out of the bathroom, chase [the officer] and say if it was their laptop,” said Andrew Malzberg (COL ’11), who witnessed the practice occur in Lauinger in late October. “It didn’t seem to make it any safer in the first place. [The officers] were just giving them back to arbitrary people.”
GUSA Director of Communications Isabella Proia said that the GUSA Executive was glad the unofficial policy was ceasing. She added that the situation points to the need for greater communication between DPS and the student body
“They were good intentions with bad consequences,” Proia said. “If someone’s there to protect you, you should feel comfortable talking to them.”
