Riot prompts extensive investigation

No additional arrests have been made in the riot that took place north of campus early Sunday morning; however, police are still investigating the incident and working to make sure nothing like it happens again.

Preventative measures include enforcing a stricter noise ordinance, increasing the number of police officers around the area where the riot occurred and giving the University wider authority to punish students for offenses committed off-campus.

Those ideas come from representatives from the UW, UW Police Department (UWPD) and Seattle Police Department (SPD) after a 90-minute meeting yesterday about Sunday morning's riot.

During the riot, many intoxicated young people started a bonfire in the middle of an intersection, flipped over a Volvo sedan and threw beer bottles at police. King County sheriff's deputies and officers from the Washington State Patrol, SPD and UWPD were called to the scene to disperse the crowd, estimated at 400. One person has been arrested, but police have yet to identify the individual.

Some ideas coming out of the meeting will be put into effect tomorrow. About a dozen additional officers will patrol the residential neighborhood north of campus, which includes the UW's fraternities and sororities, according to SPD Chief Gil Kerlikowske.

Another idea might be more controversial with University administrators.

"The mayor has directed me to look for legal sanctions for the University to hold their students accountable" for off-campus actions, Kerlikowske said.

The idea is not a new one. The Seattle City Council tried to attach a similar clause to the University's master plan, a document outlining the UW's planned growth for a decade, last year. The UW Board of Regents threw out the clause during the plan's final approval process.

"The University has chosen not, in all its years, to do that," said Ernest Morris, vice president for student affairs, at the press conference.

Morris said the UW has chosen not to in the past because it would require additional resources and have the regents attempt to exercise power in areas over which they have no control. He would not comment on how the University would react to receiving the additional authority.

The chief added that 20 officers patrolled the area around the intersection of Northeast 47th Street and 18th Avenue Northeast, which was the riot's epicenter, Sunday. The officers -- 10 of which worked during the day and 10 Sunday night -- went door to door looking for information for the case.

"People have been incredibly cooperative," Kerlikowske said.

He added that police have identified another individual involved in the incident yesterday but did not provide any other information. Morris said between 30 and 50 students and individuals were "actively engaged" in the riot. The SPD will post pictures of people at the riot on its Web site so the public can identify the individuals.

Kerlikowske also said the SPD will use all available means to punish the offenders.

"We are going to use all of the criminal sanctions, all of the civil sanctions," he said.

The police will also start to enforce a stricter noise ordinance law starting Friday. The ordinance makes it illegal to have a party between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. Friday and Saturday at which noise is "frequent, repetitive or continuous and is audible to a person of normal hearing at a distance of 75 feet or more from the property."

The penalty for breaking the ordinance once within a 24-hour period is a $250 fine, and a second violation in that same time frame is a misdemeanor, which could mean six months in jail and a $500 fine for the offender.

The SPD's Web site is www.cityofseattle.net/police.