Thirty-eight-year-old Amherst Police Detective Jamie
Reardon met with 12 journalism students from the University of Massachusetts on
Wednesday to discuss the complicated details of his position.
The small
audience, who had gathered at the Amherst Police Department, questioned Reardon
about the varying responses by police to individual cases and different local
festivities, such as Blarney Blowout, a pre-St. Patrick’s Day celebration, and
Extravaganja, a festival created to raise awareness about the push to legalize
marijuana.
Reardon, who has been a police officer for 14 years, told his
listeners that although there are plenty of regulatory procedures he follows
every day, all cases are unique and therefore require different treatment.
“In this job,
in this field, nothing’s ever black and white,” Reardon said. “I hate to say it.”
Reardon
explained that even though there were only four police officers on bicycles at
Extravaganja in comparison to the massive gathering of 6,000 people, the police
were not less prepared for the event than they had been for Blarney Blowout, a
situation some people – particularly UMass students – feel the police handled
brutally.
In fact,
Reardon estimated that the riot squad could have arrived at the Amherst Town
Common, where Extravaganja took place this year, in a matter of 5 to 10
minutes. He emphasized that the police
“plan for the worst,” but “pray for the best.”
Given the
large number of people and the potential for rioting and other misconduct,
Reardon said it only makes sense that the police staff themselves the best they
can for events like Extravaganja, but that it’s also nice to have the riot squad
and not to need them.
Despite the 73
arrests made at this year’s Blarney Blowout, Reardon acknowledged that the
majority of UMass students don’t encounter the police and he is content with
that.
“I honestly
don’t like seeing college students arrested,” Reardon said. “I have much bigger problems.”
Reardon
believes that the hype over Blarney Blowout that made the police subject to
scrutiny was caused by the increased publicity in comparison to calmer events
like Extravaganja.
“Let’s face
it: bad news sells,” Reardon said.
“Sometimes it sells better than good stories.”
One of the
highly regulated procedures in Reardon’s line of work is communicating with the
press. Reporters from The Massachusetts
Daily Collegian, The Daily Hampshire Gazette and The Republican regularly seek
media logs from the Amherst Police Department.
However, only certain information can be given to reporters.
Although
information on physical arrests is free for reporters to access, summons
arrests are kept confidential until the person is arraigned at court. In other words, data regarding citations
issued is off limits to reporters.
However, it is possible for determined reporters to get a list of
arraignments from the Eastern Hampshire District Court, which is located in
Belchertown, Mass.
Reardon
further explained that several laws protect the privacy of victims, and even
some criminals. Due to what Reardon
called the Rape Shield Law, the names of sexual assault victims are not
released to the press. No information on
juvenile offenders is released either.
Although
Reardon and the other police officers must be versatile to combat crime in all
of its varying shapes and forms that cannot completely be planned for, he
recognizes the limitations in his line of work.
It is impossible to be on the scene of every crime and catch every
criminal, many of whom are adept at hiding their behavior.
“It’s like
fishing,” he said. “You’re not going to
catch them all.”
By Shelby Ashline
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