Dartblog

Seventh in a series; read the first here, the second here, the third here, the fourth here, the fifth here, and the sixth here.

“I’m not going to go there, not for a clear violation of the law.” Hanover Chief of Police Nicholas Giaccone on October 5, 2009, in response to the question whether he would let the Town of Hanover ambulance transport incapacitated students to DHMC without having Hanover Police officers arrest them on arrival.

Hanover Chief of Police Nick Giaccone received me in his office on Monday with warmth and courtesy, as he has several times in the past. The Chief comes across as a good and honest man, someone who acts out of sincere conviction. Regrettably, his convictions include the view that underage students who consume alcohol, and especially those who over-consume, deserve to be arrested, and the law and court cases leave him no leeway. He believes that the fact that his department has instituted a diversion program is already evidence of his flexibility.

Chief Giaccone has been with the Hanover Police for his entire 36-year career. He is 61 years old. He recalls the “old days” when the police simply confiscated alcohol from underage drinkers and sent them on their way. But society has slowly evolved since then, according to Chief Giaccone, in the direction of stronger enforcement, and he does not want to turn back the clock. When pressed that perhaps evolution had been in the opposite direction - I cited the Clery Act statistics from other Ivy schools that showed that Dartmouth has far more police arrests than any other school - he fell back on the argument that the New Hampshire Supreme Court case of Weldy v. Kingston establishes a “duty of care” for municipalities from which they can deviate only at the risk of liability.

In what is also known as the Kingston case, the police in Kingston, NH confiscated beer from a car full of teenagers who smelled of alcohol, and then sent them on their way. The teenagers then procured more alcohol and had a one-vehicle traffic accident in which one of them, 16-year-old Nancy Weldy, was killed. The town of Kingston was successfully sued by the victim’s parents on the theory that its police should have stopped and held the youths for their violation.

Chief Giaccone says that while the facts of this case relate to underage drinkers driving a car, the case’s reasoning has been interpreted by attorneys for Hanover and other New Hampshire jurisdictions as applying to all incidents of underage drinking. He is not willing to risk a costly judgment against the Town of Hanover by permitting the release of underage drinkers after they have been identified by his officers. My own read of the case is quite different: it does not seem to apply to students on foot at a residential college (both the decision and the statute at issue refer repeatedly to “transporting alcohol” and “drinking and driving”), but Chief Giaccone is not the decision-maker here; he is only following the instructions that he has received from the Town’s attorney.

Regarding police discretion, the subject of our post yesterday, Chief Giaccone understands that the police can make discretionary decisions. For instance, although he is aware that illegal substances are consumed at rock concerts in Hanover, the exercise of his discretion restrains him from “causing a riot with 2,000 people” were he to send his officers in to arrest “a few marijuana smokers.” But beyond that, he sees discretion as a “slippery slope” where he, as an officer of the law, is “not allowed to decide what laws to enforce and what laws not to enforce.”

In response to my citation of numerous examples of laws that had not been enforced by the police for years prior to their repeal or invalidation by the courts, the Chief smiled and said simply that he was not going to allow laws to be broken.

In general, Chief Giaccone said that Dartmouth students were getting what was coming to them. He said that if students were moderate in their drinking, they would not get in trouble with his officers. He stated that 80% of arrests were of students who were incapacitated; only 20% of arrests were of students who had only consumed a small amount of alcohol (“a couple of beers”), and most of these latter arrests were for minors in visible possession of alcohol (“a cup in their hand”).

The Chief did cooperatively offer a suggestion in regard to Dartmouth’s Good Samaritan policy. If the College’s Safety & Security officers were to transport incapacitated students directly to DHMC themselves, or if the College were to use a non-Town of Hanover ambulance, then the Hanover Police would have no occasion to arrest students in these situations.

Chief Giaccone is fit and energetic. He is not planning to retire anytime soon.