UGA Police Officer Fired For Assisting Underage Drunk Girl, Students Start Petition To Get Him Reinstated
11 years ago

UGA Police Officer Fired For Following Law, Fellow Students Start Petition To Get Him Reinstated

This is one of those feel-good stories about students taking care of one of their own. Campus cops are not all bad. I’ll never forget the night that I stumbled up to my dorm hammered drunk only to find that I had lost my access card. Who came to my rescue? None other than campus PD to let me in and tell me to have a good night. He was a saint. I’m sure that many of you have had similar experiences.

University of Georgia police officer Jay Park responded to a call for medical assistance in the dorms. What he found was an underage girl who was drunk. He did not charge her with underage drinking, however. See, under Georgia law, there is an amnesty (HB 965) which gives immunity from arrest to those seeking medical help for alcohol and drug emergencies. Officer Park helped the young lady into an ambulance. He responded to another instance that very same night and told the students that they were under amnesty. His sergeant showed up and told them he had to charge them before sending the officer home after he said no.

The reasoning that the Captain gave Park was that for someone to be covered by the amnesty, they had to be the one to make the call for help, not a friend. A Georgia Senator has said that amnesty is covered for whoever makes the call. Park has since been fired.

Students at UGA created a petition for Park to be reinstated. Park should not have this negativity associated with his name since all he was doing was following the law. As of right now, 1,198 people have signed the petition in support of Jay Park. Help him get his job back so he can go back to being one of the few good campus cops in this country.

[via Change.org]

  2. Asteroid

    In my experience the cops that are dicks are the local town cops the campus PD are normally pretty chill. Might just be at my university though.

    11 years ago at 4:32 pm
    2. MenSince56OX

      Same here. Our campus cops are bros. The ones we have to worry about are the city cops, the other schools cops, the county sheriff, and any one of the other police agencies that like to assert themselves into our business.

      11 years ago at 4:31 am
  3. BlutoPDT

    Fuck that sergeant. I bet if his kid made a dumb decision and drank to much he would want amnesty for the people who saved his life and called 911, not an arrest record. Fucking dick.

    11 years ago at 6:44 pm
  4. BerrisFueller

    I got boned twice by campus police in my first two months of college. Good to see there are actually some good ones out there

    11 years ago at 6:52 pm
  6. DirtyJobsWithMikeBro

    UGA literally just had an issue with a student dying because his friends didn’t know about the amnesty bill and thought they would get in trouble. It’s shit like this that discourages kids from saving their friends. The captain should be reprimanded and should make an official announcement emphasizing the need for students to call for help when it’s needed.

    11 years ago at 10:42 pm
  9. Seth.arroyo

    Georgia needs to get their shit together. Under Washington state Law anyone who calls and involved with the incident is free from legal trouble. Reinstate this good guy, you piece of shit, Georgia (pertaining to university PD or town PD)!! And change your law Georgia, you assholes. No one drunk AF could call or even think about calling.

    11 years ago at 12:10 pm