<
f the release of the Annual Security Report, the Carletonian conducted a Q&A session with Director of Security Wayne Eisenhuth.
Q: How do you think we’re doing overall?
A: I always say that the city of Northfield and the Carleton College campus are safe communities. But that doesn’t mean crime doesn’t happen.

Q: In what ways does Campus Security interact with Northfield Police?
A: We’ve always had a good working relationship with the Northfield Police. If there is a crime that occurs on campus we always try to give the victim of the crime their choice if they want to report the crime to Northfield police. We don’t encourage them not to. As a matter of fact, we probably encourage them to report it so they know what’s going on.

Q: How does Security treat alcohol and marijuana? When do you get involved?
A: Minnesota has an amnesty law and Carleton also has an amnesty provision, where first-time offenders are given amnesty, and that’s for both drug and alcohol violations. And the Northfield Police are very respectful of our amnesty program. If a person needs to be transported to the hospital or if it’s obvious if they’re underage, they’re not cited. It’s up to the discretion of the officer, so I can’t say they’re always not cited.
Same thing with routine marijuana busts, where you smell the marijuana coming from underneath the door and go in, and there’s a couple of people smoking pot. We’re not going to report.

Q: You said that a lot is up to the discretion of the officer when the police get involved. Does that same discretionary basis apply for Carleton Security?
A: It depends upon the amount of marijuana. If there’s evidence if it’s a large amount of marijuana or some other drug, or you know, MDMA/ecstasy, that kind of thing, there’s evidence that it’s being distributed by this person who’s quantities and there’s a scale, baggies, and that kind of thing is obviously disturbing. That’s a call to Northfield Police.

Q: In this year’s report, what accounts for the increase in liquor law and drug law violations referred for disciplinary action?
A: It’s actually probably down from a few years ago when we started the amnesty program on campus. It really is pretty static, and so there’s no attachment to any policy change or anything like that. These numbers are non-amnesty things, like 47 [liquor law and drug law violations referred for disciplinary action in 2016]. Those are either repeat offenders or whatever that went to the conduct officer.

Q: As for the drug law violations section, for which there were 76 in total in 2016, ‘drug’ seems like an umbrella term. Is it mostly marijuana?

A: Mostly marijuana, yup.

Q: In what ways does the Dean of Students Office interact with security?
A: We get called in to the residence halls, so if an RA is doing their rounds or Area Director, or we’ve gotten calls from casual students, ‘hey, I smell marijuana coming from this room. Could you check it out?’ Then we’ll come in and check it out.

Q: Does the security office ever conduct drug busts or enter students’ rooms to search?
A: If we have probable cause. For example, if there is a marijuana odor coming from the door we’ll knock on the door and there’s no answer. We’re concerned for their health and safety. We don’t want anybody passed out or worse. If they’re passed out, it might be an overdose. If we have information that a person is in possession of a large amount of marijuana, or we’ve gotten calls that they’re probably distributing drugs, we have a room search protocol that we follow, that was written in collaboration with the Dean of Students Office.

Q: In what ways have you found the college’s medical amnesty policy to be effective on campus?
A: I think it’s good that all students aren’t getting cited for, you know, we were all students once, too. We drank, we were underage. So I think it’s good because we always like to say, ‘this isn’t a penal institution, it’s a learning institution.’

Q: What are your thoughts on the Department of Education’s new changes to Title IX guidance?
A: It appears to me to be a good thing because what they’re looking for is due process, being fair to both the complainant and the respondent. I just think they’re looking to be fair to everybody and give due process which everybody’s entitled to in a criminal lawsuit. They should be entitled the same due process in an institutional setting.