To protect Raleigh’s almost 370,000 residents, including N.C. State University’s 32,000 students, the city employs a sizeable police force — 871 strong. On Tuesday, the department welcomed a new chief, Harry Dolan. Before returning to Raleigh, Dolan held chief positions in Grand Rapids, Mich., and Lumberton, N.C. Last month Raleigh City Manager Russell Allen hired Dolan to serve as police chief after an exhaustive national search. And just like us, he is a prodigy of the University of North Carolina system. Dolan graduated from both Western Carolina University and UNC-Pembroke. And get this: Dolan will only make $132,000 a year.

Dolan has said he wants to maintain a good dialogue with the community.

I am hopeful that the “good dialogue” will include conversations with members and leaders of the NCSU community. Because, and I will have to be 100 percent honest with the new chief, I often feel like the Raleigh Police Department holds the NCSU student population in contempt.

First, take for example the old Brent Road Block Party. After several years of “drunken debauchery,” the police descended on the Brent Road area with a vengeance. The department opened a satellite office in the Avent Ferry Shopping Center to watch over the area and provide tactical support for the hundreds of law enforcement officials involved with the party’s destruction. Their goal was the total annihilation of the annual student event.

Once their objective was met and the Brent Road Block Party was no longer a tradition, the RPD continued its anti-student/anti-party campaign. The district police captain formed special units to patrol heavily populated student areas. They were charged with enforcing the infamous Nuisance Party Ordinance. After these tactics were implemented, court rooms and dockets began to fill with students charged with petty infractions disguised as nuisance party violations.

I even found myself a victim of these overzealous actions, when two plainly dressed officers appeared at my Lake Park Apartment door. The crime — I was hosting a nuisance party; a party that consisted of three black males and one white male conversing on our second floor deck. We were issued a Nuisance Party Violation because my roommates were black. I should also mention that, at the time, my roommates included the student body president, Student Senate president and senior class president. Because of their absurdity, the charges were ultimately dropped with the help of a member of Raleigh’s City Council.

With their mission accomplished, the police packed their bags and abandoned their Avent Ferry district office. Still, that has not stopped them from their continued harassment of students. Just the other night, police set up a DWI checkpoint outside the entrances of two large student neighborhoods — University House and University Woods. This was obviously designed as an intimidation tactic to coincide with the start of the new school year.

I no longer live in a large, student apartment complex but in a traditional neighborhood populated with a mixture of single family homes and students. Yet, when my home was burglarized earlier this summer, the only reason I could think of for the lackluster attention I received from the police department was because I was a student. I have not heard anything from the police since my initial call and report. I hope the rationale for the poor follow-up is based on limited resources rather than my status as an NCSU student — the jury is still out.

Students should not be afraid of the police charged with protecting them. I don’t believe students have these same apprehensions about the Campus Police department. Perhaps it’s because Campus Police officers have specialized training in dealing with college students. Additional training or not, I am optimistic that Raleigh’s new chief will usher in a new era of student/police cooperation and respect.

Bemoan your unfortunate police encounters to Andrew Payne. Email your thoughts to [email protected]