As controversy continues to spiral around what actually happened during the March 4 riot, the university is making strides toward hiring a new chief of University Police, and two out of the three finalists announced last week have served as Prince George’s County Police officers.

Although each candidate will be judged on an individual basis, students said, overall, they trust county police less than they ever have before.

The three — former county police chief David Mitchell, Acting Deputy Chief of Administration for county police Gary Cunningham and Tom Coppinger, who has served as the chief of the Homeland Security Division of State Police — will visit the campus and hold open forums to answer questions from community members Thursday, Friday and Monday, respectively. Whichever candidate is selected will replace interim University Police Chief Maj. Mark Sparks as soon as they are able.

University Police and county police, though they collaborate, are separate entities. University Police spokesman Paul Dillon said there is a concern that some students do not distinguish between the two departments.

“That’s always a worry, but not a big one,” Dillon said.

Neither Mitchell nor Cunningham was on duty the night of the riot downtown.

Still, many students pointed to events from the riot as critical in shaping their opinion of county police.

“The veil has been lifted,” junior English major Chris Fiery said. “Trust won’t be regained ‘til the current crop of students is gone.”

Sophomore Stephanie Cantor looks back to the 30 seconds when she “thought [she] was going to die” as a turning point in her ability to have faith in county police.

The finance and economics major said during the chaos that followed the Terps’ victory over Duke, she was cornered in an alley just off of Route 1 where she was pepper-sprayed. She added she had done nothing other than travel to downtown College Park to observe the festivities that followed the game.

“I was more intimidated by the cops than I do feel safe from them,” Cantor said.

But some students said their newfound skepticism of county police would not prevent them from supporting someone with ties to county police, should one of them be selected as university chief.

“I don’t like to generalize,” sophomore psychology major Funsho Adenugba said. “Just because of the bad stigma placed on PG County cops doesn’t mean one of them wouldn’t do a good job as university police chief.”

Sophomore sociology major Sarah Makhlouf said she is more skeptical of the department as a whole, considering the aftermath of the March 4 riot, but added each person should be judged independent of county police’s reputation.

“Their individual records as cops should be examined,” Makhlouf said.

Most students, some of whom were directly affected by the events during and following the riot, said time is the only remedy for the lost trust students have in county police.

“I’ve already had distrust in the police and their ability to protect and serve,” senior English major Lauren Izquierdo said. “I don’t think they can do anything [to regain student trust].”

Criminology and criminal justice department Director of Undergraduate Studies Laure Brooks said she hopes students are able to prevent themselves from judging the entire police department based solely on one night’s events.

“I don’t think [county police] have lost student trust,” Brooks said. “I don’t think students are going to judge an entire police department on the basis of actions of a few individuals, and they shouldn’t do that.”

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