Student is wrong to sue OU over investigation

An Ohio University student who is suing the university is premature in claiming that the OU Police Department officers bungled their investigation of a robbery in his room last May. Kevin Snowden, a sophomore, says he knows who took his things and that OUPD investigators did not take all the steps they could to catch him or her. Snowden is suing OU to cover the property he lost when his room in Ryors Hall, on West Green, was burglarized.

OUPD officials did not forget the theft: officers are continuing to investigate it now, five months later. Snowden said he thought police should have taken different steps in investigating the case, but he should let them do their jobs. He is not claiming they were negligent or unfair, but that they were incompetent. Snowden is not qualified to decide how the police are conducting their investigation.

The police are not commenting on the investigation because it is ongoing, so Snowden does not have enough facts to claim they have taken the wrong steps in the investigation.

Snowden’s lawsuit, if successful, may set a dangerous precedent for people who are even the least bit dissatisfied with the performance of their police departments. Police departments should conduct their investigations thoroughly and take a reasonable amount of time. They should not have to worry that over-litigious citizens are waiting to sue them if they do not produce results quickly enough.

Parking services should be an auxiliary department

Ohio University should make its Parking Services division into an auxiliary department, which will make it a more efficient, self-sustaining part of the university’s operations. Auxiliary departments generate their own revenue and do not receive money from the university’s general fund.

If OU made it an auxiliary, Parking Services could stop towing cars that violated OU parking regulations and instead immobilize them with a “boot” system. “Boots” are clamps placed on car tires that prevent the wheels from turning, allowing parking officials to keep drivers from moving their cars. This would allow Parking Services to eliminate the high costs of tow trucks and concentrate on drawing revenue from parking tickets.

It is common among other universities for parking departments to be independent operations. At Ohio State University, for example, the parking department operates more efficiently than it did when it was part of the regular university administration structure. By making Parking Services an auxiliary, OU administrators will remove it from the larger bureaucracy, freeing money from the general fund to use on academics or other projects.

An independent Parking Services also would generate revenue for the university. During the 2001-2002 fiscal year, OU auxiliaries generated a total of $59,272 in revenue and this would only increase with money coming from Parking Services. The university would be wise to take advantage of the opportunity to reduce its bureaucracy and increase its revenue.