DPS officer fired for assault against visiting student

Russell Carey sent out a community wide email tonight announcing the firing of the officer who assaulted Geovanni Cuevas, a visiting Dartmouth student attending the 2015 Latinx Conference.  The officer was placed on administrative leave directly following the incident and now it has been determined that "relevant departmental policies and procedures were not followed in the handling of the situation."As a refresher, Cuevas was visiting as a senior delegate to the Latinx Conference in the fall and was housed in Machado. The Machado House was holding a social event on the night of November 14th. A little after midnight, Cuevas was standing outside Machado when a "drunk student stumbled outside." According to Cuevas, the drunk student “was confronted with flashlights and inappropriate touching” by two DPS officers, to which he responded,  "Hey, that’s inappropriate, you shouldn’t touch him like that.'" The officers then approached Cuevas and told him he was "trespassing" and would face arrest if he tried to enter Machado House, despite being hosted there for the weekend.Later, Cuevas entered Machado House through the back. According to him, he was "grabbed, thrown up against the wall, thrown to the floor, told I was resisting when I wasn’t, scraped on my face, told I was going to get pepper-sprayed." The email explains that the officer "placed him in handcuffs and escorted him through the social function and outside of Machado House." At that point, DPS supervisors arrived and "determined that the [visiting] student would not be arrested." For a more detailed rundown of the summary of the event, in the context of this investigation, refer to the email.The investigation found that the officer's decision to use force and "engage in physical contact" resulting in custody was unwarranted given the situation. However, the email did note that other situations could warrant that amount of force, as it is "not inconsistent with departmental policy or procedure."Carey finished the email by recognizing that issues like these are part of a broader, complicated discourse about "the roles and responsibilities of law enforcement." Below, Carey details some of the steps that DPS will be taking going forward, including ones in which students can get involved.

As with any organization, there are always opportunities for improvement. Colonel Porter has been leading a review — in collaboration with Vice President for Academic Development, Diversity and Inclusion Liza Cariaga-Lo — of the training programs all officers participate in on an annual basis with regards to diversity and inclusion. Colonel Porter will be updating the Public Safety Oversight Committee (PSOC) on that review this week. Additionally, PSOC will be engaging in outreach discussions with students to gather feedback and input, in addition to reviewing its own structure, charge and operations and making recommendations for improvement by the end of the semester. Colonel Porter and I welcome questions, concerns, feedback and suggestions with regard to the Department of Public Safety and campus safety in general at any time.