NUPD really drops the ball when it comes to Public Safety. This past weekend my girlfriend and I were eating dinner at Uno’s when we saw two males pick-pocketing an unsuspecting couple walking on Huntington Avenue. We witnessed one of the individuals unzipping the women’s pocketbook, while the other reached his whole hand inside of it.

Our first reaction was to go outside and try to help, but then we thought about the recent shooting and were worried for our own safety.

Immediately we called NUPD to get help for this couple. The phone rang almost 10 times before anyone answered, and even then the public safety division just brushed off the situation and refused to even consider it a problem. Here were two individuals committing crimes footsteps away from Northeastern students and the people we pay to protect us did absolutely nothing. The officer on the phone stated: first of all, the situation was not on Northeastern’s campus! Are you serious?

We have buildings up to and surrounding the immediate area (Matthews Arena is even past the location). Furthermore, if it was not their area to patrol, they could have at least called the Boston Police.

It’s also very funny to see NUPD police cars parked outside of Store 24 and Burger King which are right across the street from Uno’s. I’m sure they aren’t stopping a lot of crimes there!

Secondly, they stated to us that since we didn’t see anything actually taken out of the women’s purse they couldn’t do anything. We both blatantly saw two men unzip the bag and place their hands in the women’s purse! What more evidence do they need? They went on to say what we were saying was hearsay and that they couldn’t just stop and question anyone who was just walking down the street. It is really ironic how NUPD can stop students suspected of having alcohol solely because they walk down the street with square-looking backpacks, but they can’t stop and question two men seen attempting robbery.

These security holes cannot and should not happen. We have to remember that this is a city we live in. If the public safety division fails to respond to situations like this, the lives of individuals could be at risk.

This is not something that Northeastern can drop the ball on.

Have you had a problem with NUPD? If so, we need to know about it! Let’s fix issues like these before they turn into serious problems. We plan on addressing this issue at the next student government meeting on Thursday at 2:50 p.m. in 333 Curry Student Center.

— Gary Marinelli and Kelly Lavin are both middler business majors and members of the Student Government Association.