In any college town, underage drinking will always be present. But this crime should never be the focus of law enforcement agencies. The new ALERT task force — a combination of the Chapel Hill Police Department, UNC’s Department of Public Safety, the Carrboro Police Department and Alcohol Law Enforcement — is an unneeded organization. The partnership is unnecessary, and the police department has other, more pressing crime issues to worry about.
The town of Chapel Hill and the surrounding area needs to choose priorities to focus on so the town can see a drop in true and dangerous crimes.
Crime is nothing new in Chapel Hill, and the police force works hard to protect students and residents from it. But in a time of budget troubles and an overall slashing of state funding, the police forces need to streamline and focus on the larger problems.
Underage drinking is a crime that certainly deserves attention. Like any drinking, it can lead to impaired driving and other illegal activities. But to focus so much on underage drinkers, the vast majority of whom aren’t putting others’ lives at risk, is a misappropriation of valuable resources. Therefore, some of ALE’s funding — especially the funds used to trap and cite underage drinkers — should be moved to more important efforts within the police force.
This money could be moved to help ALE officers perform their other, more pressing duty: making sure state liquor licenses go to the proper people. The money could also be used to help the police force better deal with Chapel Hill’s other crime problems, such as the sharp increase in crime in the Northside neighborhood or the shooting that occurred near University Mall last weekend.
Despite their good intentions, the ALERT task force is an utter waste of town capital. Moving more funding to the real police officers will better enable them to protect us from bigger dangers.
