Over the weekend, more Penn State students began patrolling the downtown streets on weekend nights from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. to help out with safety.

About five university Auxillary police will be going around, in uniform, armed with a communication device to report any students' misgivings. They are not able to make arrests. They are not able to stop incidents. Their job is to stay out of the way, and call actual police.

The focus of this program, which is sponsored by the Downtown Improvement District, is to protect downtown and make students feel safer.

Citizens pay the Downtown Improvement District a certain fund in taxes, and the funds for this project come from the borough's money.

We feel much safer now walking at night, knowing that an assault or other serious crime could be in progress, and a student will be able to witness and call in "actual police."

We understand the need to have people report serious crimes in progress, but will these Auxillary police call in smaller incidents?

Why can't the citizens of this town handle the job the interns and Auxillary police are doing in dialing 911? Can't most normal citizens call when a serious crime is in progress?

Why can't the money going toward this program fund full-time officers rather than relying on the presence of essentially an absent individual?

This could be a step to bust even more petty crime in the State College area.

This past semester has seen a number of moves by the local law enforcement to crackdown on underage drinking and the horrific incidents that result from it, at least according to the authority figures.

The Source Investigation Project, aimed at busting people who supply alcohol to underage drinkers, and both of these student patrol programs focus resources on "the drinking town with a football problem."

We recognize that drinking can be blamed for the actions of many other crimes. Yes, drinking may be a catalyst in crime, but it is not the end-all cause. In this town, it is making a whole lot of money.

Having extra "eyes and ears" may help to call in actual incidents. We understand that training on the job is invaluable, but with number of serious crimes in this area we should be using the money for more actual officers.

The real disappointment is that our law enforcement obviously doesn't think that our citizens can watch out for one another, and must pay individuals to do what a normal citizen should do, which is help each other out.