The University of Minnesota announced Wednesday that it would limit when its crime alerts include references to a suspect's race. Instead of routinely including such information in crime alerts, it will be used only "when there is sufficient detail that would help identify a specific individual or group."
The announcement follows months of campus discussion and a building takeover this month in which ending the use of racial classifications in crime alerts was one of the demands. The students who organized this month's building takeover criticized Wednesday's change as inadequate.
And the issue of racial identifications prompted a rally this month at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge andconsiderable debate at Yale University, where a black male student was detained at gunpoint based on police having been told by witnesses to look for a tall African-American male, of college age, as a suspect in a crime (not committed by the student who was detained).
Many police departments (campus and otherwise) routinely use racial descriptions when issuing crime reports or alerts. Colleges are required to notify students of crimes that may pose a danger, and so send out e-mails or text messages to students with whatever details the campus authorities opt to provide. As a result, many students are more aware of the way their campus police report on crime suspects than are members of the general public, who may not normally know that police are looking for someone with particular characteristics.
Minority students argue that these alerts are too vague to do anything but stigmatize those -- in particular, black male students -- who may in fact look nothing like someone actually accused of a crime.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/02/26/should-colleges-crime-alerts-include-reference-race-suspects