Students grill UWPD chief

A group of about 15 students got together with UW Police Chief Vicky Peltzer before the general ASUW senate meeting yesterday to ask her questions and to learn how the UW Police Department works.

Among questions students asked were inquiries into the UWPD's area of jurisdiction, recent student allegations of racial profiling and acquiring UW crime statistics.

The UWPD's area of jurisdiction is limited to the UW campus and a few UW-owned buildings in the U-District, according to Peltzer.

Students raised concerns that the Seattle Police Department is too busy and too far away to deal with many issues involving UW students that occur on Greek Row and the U-District.

"Of course, we try to keep our focus on campus, but sometimes we have to deal with UW's surrounding areas," said Peltzer.

The UWPD, along with other police departments, signs "mutual aid agreements" with virtually every other police department in Washington, which allows other departments to assist if there is immediate need of police presence in an area outside its jurisdiction and no local authorities are available, said Peltzer.

For example, if a UW police officer were to see a crime in progress in the U-District, he or she would be able to intervene and not have to wait for the SPD to respond. However, the official report would be handled by Seattle police.

Though there were few questions about the recent allegations of racial profiling and the demands made of the UWPD by Students Together Against Racism (STAR), Peltzer said she agreed with the requests made. Her response was the same as UW president Richard McCormick's official response, which was mailed to STAR yesterday.

McCormick and the UWPD are committed to meeting five of the group's six requests. The one request not met dealt with the creation of a "student board to oversee complains against police and to help in the hiring of new officers."

In McCormick's response, he said a student board to oversee the hiring, disciplining and firing of officers simply "cannot be done." The procedure by which those actions are done are prescribed by Washington State Civil Service Laws, according to McCormick.

In regard to questions about local crime statistics, specifically rape, Peltzer said statistics including the U-District and Greek Row are difficult to get because of the way the SPD breaks down its crime statistics.

The SPD categorizes its crime statistics by census tract, which includes the U-District and many surrounding areas. Narrowing the statistics to include just the U-District would require that the address be entered for each offense, according to Peltzer.

The UWPD chief hopes for increased communication between student groups and the UWPD. Currently, the department is planning on "citizen satisfaction surveys" for the entire campus community.

"We sent a survey out already, but it's only for people we've had contact with," said Peltzer.