printable versionAnnual police report shows strong enforcement of alcohol laws
BY MICHAEL PEÑA
University police have issued the 2008 Stanford Safety and Security Report, which includes statistics on crimes committed on campus over the past year. The annual report, compiled by the Department of Public Safety, shows a notable increase in the number of arrests for liquor law violations—a jump that university officials link to heightened patrolling of student residences on weekends.
According to the report, campus police made 81 arrests for liquor law violations in 2007. Officers made 39 such arrests on campus in 2006 and 22 the year before. This category includes arrests made for minors in possession of alcohol and for drinking, but not for driving under the influence or public drunkenness.
"We did not have a specific goal of increasing the number of arrests," said Stanford police Chief Laura Wilson. "Rather, the officers were interested in ensuring the safety of our residents."
But she and other university officials cautioned that those statistics don't necessarily indicate that more Stanford students are drinking. According to Wilson, only 42 of the 81 individuals arrested in 2007 were Stanford students. Similarly, only 15 of the 39 individuals arrested in 2006 were Stanford students.
"We are seeing a lot of non-Stanford students attending 'our' parties," Wilson said.
Statistics compiled at Vaden Health Center also reflect a decrease in the level of drinking within the student population. Vaden—the primary provider of medical care, health promotion programs, and counseling and psychological services for all registered students—also serves as the clearinghouse for alcohol-related cases within that population.
The center's figures are for incidents that occur over an academic year, as opposed to over a calendar year, which is how the Department of Public Safety reports data. Nonetheless, over the last four academic years, the number of students needing transport to the emergency room for alcohol poisoning has dropped dramatically from the 2004-2005 academic year to the one just ended.
Ralph Castro, manager of the Substance Abuse Prevention Program at Vaden, said the annual number of trips to the ER is perhaps the best indicator of how badly alcohol is being abused on campus and how much progress education and outreach efforts have made. For the 2004-05 year, Castro said there were 119 trips, followed by 93 trips the next year, 54 for all of 2006-07, and 37 last year.
"We are encouraged to see such a dramatic decrease. I have been speaking to colleagues in the field at other schools, and no other school, to my knowledge, is seeing these dramatic reductions," Castro said. "I think it is a testament to our students who are making healthy and responsible choices around alcohol, as well as the work we are doing with students."
Castro credited the success to several programs that were introduced over the last four years, including the adoption of AlcoholEdu, a comprehensive online education program that all incoming freshmen must complete the summer before they arrive on campus. Also, the university has standardized alcohol education and intervention training for all residence staff.
Additionally, Castro said a tremendous amount of emphasis has been placed on informing students about the dangers of hard liquor consumption—and embedding that message into many programs and outreach efforts. He also pointed to the Office of Student Activities, which oversees Stanford's Party Planning Guidelines, and the university's Alcohol Advisory Board, which reviews and passes new policy applications.
Castro co-chairs the board with Koren Bakkegard, assistant dean of freshmen. The Stanford University Alcohol Awareness Guide is at http://alcohol.stanford.edu.
Wilson said increased patrolling around the dorms on party weekends does more than serve to protect intoxicated students from doing harm to themselves. She added that a bigger police presence also can prevent students from being taken advantage of by those coming from off campus. For instance, reports of burglaries and thefts during student parties are fairly common, Wilson explained.
The number of burglaries in dorms rose from 48 in 2006 to 63 last year, the report states. Overall, the number of unlawful entries into structures on campus, "with the intent to commit a felony or a theft," increased from 107 in 2006 to 137 last year. Bicycle thefts on campus also went up during that period, from 268 to 294.
Meanwhile, the number of forcible sex offenses (rape, fondling and similar acts committed against a victim's will) that were reported to university counselors increased from 11 in 2006 to 14 last year. In 2005, four forcible sex offenses were reported to university counselors.
When Stanford police issued last year's Safety and Security Report, university officials linked a significant rise in rape cases and other forcible sex offenses over the year prior to more victims stepping forward because of concerted awareness and education efforts. The 2007 report showed no major increase over the previous year in the number of forcible rape or fondling incidents reported to campus police.
"It is to Stanford University's credit that sexual assault and relationship violence are not tolerated," said Carole Pertofsky, director of health promotion services at Vaden. "It is also a credit to the vast majority of Stanford's male and female students who speak out against sexual violence."
On a related note, a two-year grant from the U.S. Department of Justice's Office for Violence Against Women has been renewed for three more years. The funds, $300,000 in total, will support efforts such as campus-wide prevention education, training and response.
University police issue the annual Stanford Safety and Security Report to publicize information about campus security programs, recommended personal safety practices and campus crime statistics for the most recent three years—for those crimes specified by the federal law known as the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Crime Statistics Act.
The report defines campus as including the academic and research areas, all student and staff residences on campus, the Medical Center and the academic reserve open space to the south of the main campus. The full report, as well as crime statistics for Stanford locations abroad, is available at http://police.stanford.edu.
