This is my 1900th review because the cops in question belonged back in 1900, rather than in the…read more21st century.
I prefer to call them the "University Cease" as in "Cease & Desist" as in, harrassing me and arresting me for no reason at all.
I've talked to cops who are friends and to lawyers and to the DA of Amherst about what happened in this review, and they've all encouraged me to take action about it, but I decided not to bother. However I'm happy to put it in writing because it happened and it could happen to you.
I was using the computers here at UB thanks to my gf, who had lent me her password. I was a student down in Virginia, up here for the summer, and nobody else was around. Our internet at our place wasn't working. A police guy came by and asked if I was a student. I said "yes, I'm a student." He left.
Later, he followed me to my car, and asked to see ID. I showed him ID, and he immediately arrested me because I was not a UB Student. I reminded him that he'd asked if I was a student, not if I was a UB Student, but he said that regardless of my opinion, it was "false personation" and then I spent the night in a jail cell. So we all paid for my arrest with our tax dollars for this. Fair enough.
Of course I didn't get charged with anything and the DA threw it out. Six months later I was on campus, visiting friends, and walking back to my car late at night, and he spotted me. He asked for ID. I showed him. He remembered me, and assured me I was "violating my ban" since I was "banned from UB." I assured him that I'd never been banned from UB, and he arrested me anyway. He kept me in jail again. "Trespassing" was the charge this time.
Again, it was thrown out, and the DA got very angry. She said she'd be following up and finding out why this particular officer was harrassing me. No charges. No problems for me except 2 random nights in jail for doing absolutely nothing. He was very aggressive in the way he arrested me too. I didn't even remotely resist. It basically amounted to him being bored, and not liking me. If visiting friends or using computers at a University where your gf is a student, is a crime, then a hell of a lot of people will get arrested.
So because one man from this police department harrassed me and wasted 2 nights of my life in a jail cell and 2 days of my life in court only for those charges to be thrown out, I'm giving this department a 1-star rating. And as much as I know some lovely cops, between these personal experiences, and then all of the much-publicized shooting deaths (I should say, murders) perpetrated by cops recently... it's hard for me to have a very positive opinion of the police force in general. On the other hand, I've had some great police experiences, so more power to them and my love to all of the good cops out there.
And my apologies to anyone at the UB PD who are good cops and good men, but this guy is not. He is a menace, and since he's my only real example of UB cops, and I can't review him individually (I have his name, and will never forget it, but I won't put it here because I don't want him trying to come after me or something), I have to review the whole department.
One funny thing I remember is that his friend, the guy with a moustache who helped bring me in, muttered to me when the jerk wasn't listening, that "he doesn't know what this guy's problem is, and not to worry, I'll be out by morning."
The police. Serving and protecting all of us. Awesome.