Drug incidents plummet in dorms

With two months remaining in 2001, the number of drug arrests, citations and warnings issued in the UW dorms has decreased by approximately 80 percent compared to last year's statistics.

According to Assistant Chief Annette Spicuzza, the UWPD has issued a total of 10 drug arrests, citations and warnings so far this year, a drop from the 49 incidents The Daily reported in 2000.

That drop comes after a steady rise in dorm drug incidents since 1996. During that period, dorm drug incidents rose 900 percent, from five in 1996 to 49 in 2000. Spicuzza said that four-year climb is due to over-reporting, when a drug incident is reported more than once in order to satisfy two different crime-reporting directives.

Lt. Ray Wittmier said the UWPD has to report its statistics to both the Clery Act and the FBI's annual Uniform Crime Report - crime-reporting directives that exist for every police department nationwide.

"This is very common when having to satisfy more than one collection agency," said Spicuzza.

But Spicuzza's explanation for the decrease in incidents doesn't satisfy everyone. Christal Wood, a 2000 UW graduate, accused the UW administration of changing the UWPD's policy on handling drug users in the dorms so the University could avoid a reputation of being a drug-ridden campus.

Wood is the only write-in candidate recognized by the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission for next week's Seattle mayoral race. She insists the UWPD has little to do with the dorms, and questions whether a police department should be on campus.

"College kids have [been doing] drugs since there was college," said Wood. "Is this problem worth pressing and worth magnifying?"

Susan Folk, assistant to executive Vice President Weldon Ihrig and Sandra Lier, associate vice president for business services, denies any changes have been made to the UWPD's drug policy in the dorms. Ihrig and Lier oversee the management of the UWPD's resources

"We don't hide our head in the sand and pretend [drug use] is not going on," said Wittmier.

Wood, who has been endorsed by Seattle's Green party, is running on a platform of "[declaring] an end to the Drug War as we know it," among other issues. She attributes past increases in drug incidents to an increase in the UWPD's manpower.

According to Lier, nothing could be further from the truth.

Lier said the UWPD is "constantly hiring" officers for University policing due to high turnover, and that the number of officers working for the UWPD is "not something which really has grown over the years."

UWPD Officers Kevin Kilpatrick and Adam Buchan both corroborated her statement.

Buchan said many officers leave the UWPD after one or two years of service. Buchan is a three-year veteran of the UWPD, and has recently started patrolling the dorms exclusively.

"It's a revolving door here," said Buchan, "We've always been short."

According to Spicuzza, the UWPD is not alone in its over-reporting. To combat the issue, the UWPD has refined its system of processing drug-use incidents and enlisted the aid of dorm personnel in catching drug users.

"We've gone back and reviewed our reporting practices and we feel we have defined them appropriately for our statistic gathering responsibilities," said Spicuzza. She and Wittmier credit both UWPD dorm officers and resident advisers (RAs) for developing a more proactive approach to addressing drug use in the dorms.

"The RAs ... are doing a great job in assisting us by keeping us aware of problem areas and concerns they might have," said Spicuzza.

The feeling is mutual in the residence halls. "We've had great working relationships (with the dorm officers)," said Justin Salisbury, an RA in Lander Hall. Salisbury said he feels comfortable when the UWPD handles a drug incident in the dorms.

"We're not really trained to handle [drug incidents]," said Lander RA Stephanie Van Driel. "[The officers] are good at taking care of it and keeping us informed."