P-Safe: “Pictures Are a Way of Identifying People”

This past Friday, we posted coverage of P-Safe officers displaying a newfound interest in photography as an—ahem—relaxed crowd of students spent 4/20 on Foss. The post garnered a number of speculative comments. P-Safe can’t actually use the footage, assured a few hasty replies:

From my WSA days, I learned PSAFE uses the cameras as a deterrent. They CANNOT use the footage in SJB hearings as evidence against you. They do it to freak you out but it has no judicial weight.

Not so, suggests a brief story on the front page of today’s Argus. Glance at the fine print below Andy Ribner ’14’s fantastic photo and recoil: there’s a rather explicit heads-up from your friendly neighborhood P-Safe director Dave Meyer:

Director of PSafe Dave Meyer said that PSafe will use the footage to identify students engaging in drug use and send them to the Student Judicial Board.

“With that many people [out on the hill], pictures are a way of identifying people,” Meyer said. “We [also] took pictures of people as we took pot away from them.” [ . . . ] Meyer said that PSafe will continue using cameras to identify students engaging in illegal activities, especially during upcoming events such as Tour de Franzia.

Well, uh, that’s comforting. P-Safe did take extensive video footage during last year’s Tour de Franzia, and, to my knowledge, never used it to SJB students—even after Dean Mike Whaley announced plans to “pursue judicial charges.” So what makes this tour different than any other tour?

What say you? Holler in the comments if you’ve gotten an SJB summons for toking on Foss during four-freaking-twenty.

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