Summer school may be in full swing in Lawrence, Kansas, but it’s not just the students that are receiving a grade on their report cards.
Law and order, that’s what the Lawrence Police Department is hoping to bring to the college town this summer. As of three weeks ago, they started handing out grades.
"The grades haven't been very good so far," said Officer Drew Fennelly.
Officer Fennely posts the grades every Monday morning on the Lawrence Police Department's Twitter. The first week the city received a "D-" and last week a "C+". Monday morning, Officer Fennelly said the city took home their first good grade with a "B-".
Y'all were so wrong. Solid B- from the weekend. Way to go team! https://t.co/XeUwToWbyR
— Lawrence Police (@LawrenceKS_PD) June 12, 2017
"It was a good weekend, there were a few incidents that went on but, we didn't get off to a good start last week during the week so it was a little anxious going into the weekend with all of the events we had going on last week," said Fennelly.
The grading scale is the same as it would be in school, "A" through "F".
"The weekend's always a really busy time for us here in Lawrence," said Fennelly. "It's going to be really hard to get an 'A' so, I don't know, I guess I'm like a hard grading professor."
Officer Fennelly says a ‘C’ average is good. He says it’s the serious crimes being committed that have brought the grade down as of late.
"If we have just a typical weekend with some fights and stuff like that then the grade will be a little bit higher," said Fennelly.
What grade will Lawrence get for criminal activity this ferociously hot weekend? Failed the midterm this week like whoah.
— Lawrence Police (@LawrenceKS_PD) June 9, 2017
By giving out a grade every Monday morning, Lawrence Police hope to become more transparent with the community. Residents of Lawrence weighed in on the new grading system.
"I think it might be a way to get the community more involved, but I really don't know if that will change crime levels," said Rylee Radcliffe, Lawrence Resident.
"The only way a grading system would work was if there would be some kind of like threat or like consequence for getting a bad grade," said Samantha Foreman, Lawrence Resident.
Overall, the department wants to bring more attention to the things they’re doing every day. They said they will continue with the grading system every Monday morning as long as people continue to be engaged and interested.
