Grad students fear police taking photos

During the past six months, Robert Davies attended all of the demonstrations on campus, along with his polaroid camera. Davies, a molecular biology emeritus professor, is an open expression monitor and he carries the camera with him to take pictures of demonstrators who refuse to identify themselves when asked. "There've been occasions in the past where students refused to show their IDs and the monitors were frightened," Davies said. But other open expression monitors said they feel uncomfortable taking the photographs, Davies said. As a result, Davies said, the monitors decided to have University police take the photographs instead "because it's unlikely the police would be attacked." However, Davies said, University police are not allowed to. "There is a rule which prohibits the police from taking pictures," Davies said. "That ruling came from many years ago when University security would often go to meetings and take records of who was there." Davies said that an exception should be made for open expression, since the pictures would only be used for identification purposes. But at a Graduate and Professional Students Assembly meeting last night, graduate students said they were worried about giving the police the power to take pictures, and passed a resolution stating "that GAPSA opposes the taking of pictures by University Police under the guidelines of open expression." GAPSA President Allen Orsi said at the meeting that he is uncomfortable with the idea of police photographing students. Daives said that since he began carrying the camera six months ago, "no picture has been taken." "My personal hope is that [the camera] will never be needed, but my hope is to have it ready and available at all times," Davies said.

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