To the Editor:
I read professor Robert Whitley's June 29 letter to the editor ("De-Sanitizing the Police Blotter") with great interest as one of the most striking changes since my days at Dartmouth is the overzealous behavior of the Hanover Police Department described in Whitley's letter. In my view it is high time that the "HPD" carefully consider that it is not operating in Iraq but in the small town that is Hanover, N.H., and it should tailor its behavior accordingly.
As a member of the board of directors of my fraternity's (Sigma Nu) alumni corporation I have twice encountered over the last few years what I consider to be simply out-of-control behavior by Hanover Police. On one occasion, Hanover Police threatened to arrest Sigma Nu brothers under some sort of deranged notion that they hadn't been fully cooperative with the their investigation of a burglary at Sigma Nu. That's right, the Hanover Police threatened to arrest the victims of the crime. What made this threat even more ludicrous was the fact that the Sigma Nu brothers had already provided the Hanover Police with every bit of information they had about possible suspects involved in the crime but Hanover Police, for no comprehensible reason whatsoever, insisted that they were withholding information. It was only after I (a lawyer) and our board chairman (also a lawyer) called the Hanover Police and threatened to involve the Grafton County District Attorney that the Hanover Police relented.
On another occasion, during a party at Sigma Nu over homecoming weekend a student who had become overly intoxicated at a dorm party entered the house and became ill. The Sigma Nu brothers called the College for assistance. What happened next is almost beyond belief. A Hanover ambulance and three Hanover Police cruisers roared up in front of the house. The EMT's entered the house followed by several Hanover Police officers, one of whom threatened to arrest anyone "who gets in the way." There was simply no need for the police to be there and the threats leveled by Hanover Police were shameful and utterly pointless.
Hanover is not a crime-ridden environment by any stretch of the imagination. In New York City, where I live, the police have much more to deal with, but somehow they don't act like the Hanover Police. Perhaps it is because the NYPD is a professional law enforcement organization and Hanover Police is not. It is high time that the Barney Fifes of the Hanover Police begin to act reasonably again.
