Provide all the excuses you want, having MSU police wander through tailgates armed with video cameras is not a good idea.
Despite reassurances from MSU police, students caught on tape during football Saturdays - or at any other event - have to wonder if police officers are out to get them.
Officials say the tapes are used to analyze the ways different groups act while tailgating, and to document arrests and large groups to protect individuals and officers from later court action.
And while it can protect officers during a questionable arrest - having a visual record always helps should a disagreement surface - the ability to record at will has the potential to be abused.
Most students are unaware of the reasons why MSU police videotaped at past tailgates. No real explanation has made its way to the student body, which fosters a paranoid attitude toward police because they have no idea what to expect.
And on a campus that already feels a strain on its relationship with the local police, this is a move that does little to help.
This isn’t the first time police videotaping events has made news. MSU police have been known to videotape demonstrations, and East Lansing police videotaped the celebration in the Cedar Village area after the men’s basketball team won the NCAA Championship.
Such uses of video cameras leave a bad taste.
Fortunately, MSU President M. Peter McPherson says videotaping is inappropriate, unless there is a known problem occurring - something the president said MSU police Chief Bruce Benson has agreed with.
Using in-car cameras during police stops, or videotaping known illegal activity - not simply an event where something could happen - is appropriate to protect the officers who protect us.
But law enforcement officials should be able to see with their own eyes when something illegal is going on, and can move to halt it then. They should not have to rely on cameras to see for them.
We applaud university officials for finally taking public action to stop the widespread use of video cameras at events and demonstrations. But the lack of communication between police and the community up to this point is upsetting, and does not give students a clear picture of why police do what they do.
There’s no reason students should be confused about or afraid of our police force. The university needs to continue to build a dialogue with students to correct this problem.
Taping student celebrations might help make more arrests and improve the success rate of prosecution, but it’s not something worth destroying already-fragile community relations over.
