The Grinnell police department, aided by reports from Grinnell College campus safety, is responding to reported incidents of individuals in trucks harassing students near campus.
Grinnell Police Chief Michael McClelland said that on Aug. 21, the police received a report of a passenger in a black truck yelling a slur at students on Eighth Ave. and East Street.
“It was a backseat passenger that said the n-word to some students,” McClelland said. “Campus security actually found video of the truck driving through the area at the time that that happened.”
Using a description from the witness and video footage from Campus Safety, the Grinnell police were able to identify a black truck thought to be the truck from the incident.
“It had these big huge rims and then it was lit up underneath, and there’s not too many of those in town,” McClelland said. “I have contacted the owner of that truck. He was very uncooperative.”
McClelland said that the owner would not comment on the alleged actions of his backseat passenger, and the investigation has been deactivated.
“We didn’t have enough to go forward with criminal charges,” McClelland said. “But he knows that we know who it is, and hopefully that will be enough to put a stop to it.”
On Aug. 22, the Grinnell police received a separate report from Campus Safety about two similar instances of people in a white truck harassing students in Grinnell’s town.
“In both cases, individuals in the vehicle reportedly revved the engine, shouted ‘run,’ and drove in a reckless manner,” James Shropshire, director of Campus Safety wrote in an email to The S&B. “In one instance, the vehicle may have briefly entered roadways near campus.”
Shropshire wrote that Campus Safety has reviewed video footage of two different white trucks on campus roads during the time of one of the incidents.
Although the police lack a description of the driver and license plate numbers, McClelland said that he has a suspicion about the identity of the driver of the white truck.
“I think it might be a mentally disturbed party that we’ve been dealing with that drives a white truck, but I don’t have enough evidence to prove that it is,” McClelland said. “But from what it sounds like, the things that he’s yelling out the window, it sounds like it might be the same guy.”
McClelland said that he does not believe that the incidents involving the white truck and black truck are related.
Both Shropshire and McClelland said that reporting instances of harassment to the Grinnell police department as soon as possible is crucial in helping the police respond to incidents.
“Don’t be afraid to call us,” McClelland said. “I know they [students] want to report it to campus security, but they don’t always tell us … We want to investigate and if people are doing this, we want to hold them accountable for it. The best way we can do that is timely information, descriptions, whatever you guys can give us.”