As the DeKalb police station prepares to open at its new location, a debate about it being located across from the Center for Black Studies continues.

The station is located at 700 W. Lincoln Highway and is near the Center for Black Studies, 621 W. Lincoln Highway. Some members of black student groups believe the station’s close proximity to the Center for Black Studies was intentional; however, area officials have said the location was selected so police could be on the other side of the train tracks, where more calls come from.

This issue was brought up at the Oct. 27 Student Association Senate meeting by Senator Novella Blackmon. Blackmon is a junior psychology major with a minor in African American studies and is a member of multiple black student groups.

“By putting the station near the Center for Black Students, it seems like a way of keeping an eye on black students more closely,” she said.

City Council and the DeKalb Police Department said the location of the station had nothing to do with the Center for Black Studies or the black community.

Ron Naylor is the alderman for the fifth ward, which the new police station sits in. Naylor said the location was carefully determined after looking at studies and statistics. DeKalb police have said the majority of their calls come from north of the area’s train tracks; their previous station, at 200 S. Fourth St., was on the other side of the tracks.

“One of the key criteria was that it would be easily accessible to where the need is at,” Naylor said.

Stephen Samuels, graduate developmental education student, has noticed concern from black students about the police station’s new location. He works at the Center for Black Studies as part of his graduate assistantship and is also the graduate adviser for the Black Student Union and Black Male Initiative.

“The African American community is uneasy right now,” Samuels said. “I know two students who live on Lincoln Highway. They usually walk up Lincoln Highway and come to the Center for Black Studies at night, and now they say that they probably won’t be coming anymore because they don’t want to walk past the police station. Some students fear the police, and that is not the way it should be.”

Police Cmdr. Jason Leverton wanted to assure the community that the location of the police station had nothing to do with race or the Center for Black Studies.

“A large percentage of our calls for service are north of the [train] tracks, so getting north of the tracks was the primary goal,” Leverton said. “We are disappointed that there is a feeling that there would be something kind of underhanded about the location of the facility being for us to keep an eye on anyone. The only type of people that we are going to target and go after is the ones committing crimes.”