Our View: By wandering WSU dorms, cops violate rights

Two years ago, a Whitman County Superior Court judge smacked down Washington State University’s dorm patrols, saying the police sweeps of hallways were an invasion of the residents’ privacy.

The university reacted by rewriting its policy and renewing the patrols. But the state Court of Appeals recently ruled that the new policy remains an unconstitutional violation of Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure.

Students who step into hallways of dorms with shared bathrooms and study areas should have a reasonable expectation of privacy. Outsiders, including the police, shouldn’t be able to roam without invitations or escorts. Officers cannot inspect students’ fraternities, apartments or houses uninvited. There’s no reason an exception must be carved out for dormitories. Still, university officers are given passkeys.

It’s time WSU and all other universities stop the condescending snooping and figure out a better way to safeguard students before fall classes begin.

The controversy started when a student’s room was burglarized and a campus officer responded with a floor-to-floor search of the dorm. When he heard suspicious voices in a room, he knocked – covering the peephole to disguise his identity – and asked to be let in. When that didn’t work, he announced that he was a police officer and demanded to be let in.

The student complied and then implicated himself. The stolen items were recovered.

But because the officer wasn’t invited into the dorm and didn’t have a warrant, a Whitman County judge tossed the seized evidence. In another case, the same officer stood outside a room and smelled marijuana, which led to a drug-possession arrest.

It’s certainly frustrating that culprits get breaks because of legal technicalities, but the larger principles of privacy and due process are important. Just like houses, dorm floors are protected with locks. Houses have house rules, enforced by residents; and dorms have hall monitors to perform that function.

Towel-draped students ought to be able to walk to the showers without encountering campus police officers. Imagine your reaction to such a scenario in your house.

If the police are to be involved, they need to be invited in or obtain a search warrant. Giving them carte blanche to conduct routine sweeps or even unannounced investigations, as the Appeals Court has reminded the university again, is going too far.