Bystander Intervention: real talk and real action are needed, maybe?

"'Bystander intervention is actually something we do talk about a lot here at the University. It's important that everyone in the community find a way to engage positively to prevent negative things from happening,' said Inspector Aran Mull, University Police Department Public Information Officer. 'It's challenging as a police officer to recommend that someone step forward and put themselves in danger.'"

Cruz, Megan. "Collins pleads not guilty after attempted abductions." YNN. October 12, 2013. http://hudsonvalley.ynn.com/content/news/699811/collins-pleads-not-guilty-after-attempted-abductions/

Bystander intervention was not something that was talked about a lot at UAlbany in all the (too many!) years I was there, not publicly anyhow. (Perhaps they talk about it a lot in private meetings and never do anything about it except to ignore it or retaliate against it?) It's also not something Aran Mull seems to like much, in my experience. Reporting anything to him is potentially risky, since the requirement in the SUNY Police Manual that police respond is ignored by him and (not to single him out unfairly) also ignored by others in the UAlbany Police Department: Thomas J. Kilcullen, Paul M. Berger, Jennifer L. Fila, William Yankowski, Thomas Gebhardt, Christopher T. Farina, Paul C. Burlingame, Benjamin J. Nagy, Matthew A. Griffin, J. "Frank" Wiley, etc. Granted, some of them never swore and filed their Oath of Office as required with the NYS Secretary of State, so it would seem they're not technically employed at UAlbany at all - having legally vacated their offices the years they were appointed?

For more about Mull, mull over http://minervawept.blogspot.com/2013/08/discrimination-and-dat-crimination.html, http://minervawept.blogspot.com/2013/02/suny-albany-cafe-no-students-served.html (about the Committee on Academic Freedom, Freedom of Expresion, and Community Responsibility he's chaired), and http://minervawept.blogspot.com/2013/08/speechless.html (about freedom of speech, one of many rights Mull hasn't upheld in his role as a UAlbany Police Inspector, UAlbany Police Command Staff member, or as CAFFECoR Chair).

"UAlbany police now working with state police to investigate whether or not the 54-year old could have been involved in two long unsolved missing persons cases. Karen Wilson in 1985 and Suzanne Lydall in 1998 -- both were ualbany students."

Cutler, Amy. "New details emerging about UAlbany abduction suspect's mental health." NEWS10 ABC. http://www.news10.com/story/23660781/new-details-emerging-about-ualbany-abduction-suspects-mental-health?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wten-localnews+(WTEN+-+Local+News)

One has to ask how UAlbany police are working together with state police. Aside from UAlbany police being openly corrupt and incompetent, and the UAlbany Police's failure to close the cold cases all these years (and their failure to have kept those students safe in the first place http://minervawept.blogspot.com/2012/10/galling-memorial-disservice.html ) there's something else troubling. Lieutenant Glenn R. Miner, Records Access Officer, Central Records Bureau, New York State Police had written on January 3, 2013 that there was no current Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Division of State Police and the University at Albany's University Police Department. How are they currently working together without a MOU? Or did they finally agree on one after my FOIL request may have reminded them about the law with which they'd failed to comply?

N.Y. EDUC. LAW § 355 (2) (l) [that's a lower case "L" in parentheses] states that, subject to the approval of the chancellor, such an agreement "shall" be entered, which would appear to indicate the existence of such an agreement is legally required, unless the SUNY Chancellor sees fit to prohibit agreements between SUNY and non-SUNY law enforcement agencies. The SUNY Chancellor ever choosing to prohibit such agreements would seemingly require a great deal of justification, given, e.g. the statement in SUNY Police Manual § 10.10 "University police will cooperate with all legally authorized agencies and their representatives in the pursuit of justice" http://www.suny.edu/sunypp/documents.cfm?doc_id=364 or Governor Andrew Cuomo's recent statement, "the safety of our students and the security of our campuses is our top priority". Press Releases. September 13, 2012. http://www.governor.ny.gov/press/091412stmtsunythreats. It's perhaps possible the FOIL request was pettifogged, but Records Access Officers are supposed to help people obtain the records they want; obstructing the requests isn't part of the law.