The Rice Thresher

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December 8, 2006 > News > Students respond to KPRC

Students respond to KPRC

By Julia Bursten | Thresher Editorial Staff

KPRC Local 2 News reporter Amy Davis aired two segments in the past two weeks on the Rice University Police Department’s handling of alcohol-related violations.

The first report was broadcast Nov. 26 and titled “Investigation: Rice students get pass for drinking, driving?”

The broadcast

In an interview with the Thresher, Davis said the first story was intended to determine whether RUPD sends students to University Court for the violations that ordinarily send non-Rice individuals to the city legal system.

Davis said an employee of a Rice-area business brought the issue to her attention. The individual called to report he had noticed a pattern of RUPD officers stopping people who appeared to be Rice students for what appeared to be drinking and driving without taking the subjects into custody.

The Dec. 1 broadcast, “Rice Police, DA discuss DUI policy,” focused on the communication between RUPD and the Harris County District Attorney’s Office that occurred since the first story aired.

In the introduction to the second report, Davis explained that the follow-up was airing in response to significant student reaction generated by the first broadcast.

Both broadcasts show footage shot by Davis at Wiess College’s Night of Decadence Oct. 28, and both present RUPD crime statistics broken down by Rice versus non-Rice demographics, which show that RUPD arrests a much higher percentage of non-Rice subjects than Rice students.

The presentation

In the reports, Davis used statistics compiled from RUPD police blotters from January to October 2006.

Davis said the numbers presented represent all stops made by RUPD in those months.

In the initial broadcast, the visually represented statistics are verbally introduced as representing crimes like public intoxication and drunk driving.

Davis reported that 33 of 37 non-Rice subjects and 4 of 73 Rice students stopped by RUPD were sent to Harris County Jail but did not report that driving while intoxicated charges were issued to 3 of the non-Rice subjects and 2 of the students.

Davis also does not distinguish between University Court and Student Judicial Programs.

Although RUPD’s online campus crime log states students are referred to U-Court, students are actually referred to Student Judicial Programs, where Assistant Dean of Student Judicial Programs Don Ostdiek has the discretion to hear the case himself or refer it to U-Court.

Rice University Police Chief Bill Taylor said any subject charged with DWI is sent to Harris County Jail for it. However, not all subjects charged with driving under the influence were sent to Harris County Jail because DUI is different from DWI. DUI is a less harsh charge that is applicable to persons under the age of 21 who are operating a vehicle with a blood alcohol content of at least 0.05, according to the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles’ Texas Drivers’ Handbook. DWI, on the other hand, is charge made only after a subject is stopped for violating a traffic law and has failed standardized field sobriety tests, Taylor said. DWI requires a BAC of at least 0.08 and a charge requires at least 72 hours in jail. No jail time is mandated for DUI.

“The reality is that over the past year we have had eight [DUI citations]: four on-campus subjects and four off,” Taylor said. “When we stop someone for DUI, we write the DUI citation and release [him or her], normally. For the four off-campus subjects, that’s what we did. Of the four university people, two were written citations and two went to jail.”

Taylor said Davis compiled her statistics in a way that misrepresented reality.

“If I had one of my officers doing an investigation like that, I’d fire him,” he said. “It’s not an investigation — there’s no viable data there.”

Davis said the focus of her initial investigation was to determine whether students were given special treatment when stopped for alcohol-related or alcohol- and driving- related violations.

However, Taylor said these categories fail to distinguish between status offenses, such as Minor in Possession, and behavior offenses, such as Public Intoxication. He said Davis’ numbers do not make the distinction she intended to make.

Jones College senior Caitlin Parker was one of two students interviewed for the first broadcast. After Davis’ introduction, Parker was shown on screen affirming that Rice students are given preferential treatment.

Parker said this clip, her only on-camera appearance, did not accurately reflect her opinion. She said she did not know the purpose of the interview when she was stopped, and she meant that RUPD is not looking to get students in trouble. Parker said Davis asked leading questions.

Davis said she thinks the clips accurately reflect the interviewees’ opinions.

“There was nothing taken out of context; [the interviews were cut] only for time,” Davis said. “I would have preferred to have let them go as long as their whole thought, but it didn’t change the context of what they were saying at all.”

Hanszen College freshman Catherine Bratic — whom Davis interviewed on the second broadcast — had an e-mail exchange with Davis after the first report.

Bratic said she agreed to the interview because she wanted the university to have a voice since neither the administration nor RUPD talked to Davis. Bratic said she thinks the second broadcast was not objective but that she was represented fairly.

“It was still biased, but at least Rice had input,” Bratic said. “I was not taken out of context.”

NOD footage

The NOD scenes broadcast on KPRC show scantily clad students drinking and dancing at a private gathering in a Wiess room and students walking in the Acabowl in front of RUPD officers.

Davis said she attended NOD with a KPRC crew and shot the footage on a handheld video recorder that was in full view. Davis declined to say how many crew came.

In a letter to the Thresher (see letter, page 2), Davis said she did not follow procedure for admittance to NOD. In order to enter the Acabowl, NOD-goers must register to receive a wristband. An additional wristband is required to enter the public party.

“We attended [NOD] simply by walking inside,” Davis wrote.

Taylor said Davis’ presence at NOD concerns him because he had originally thought a registered NOD attendee filmed the event and released it.

“[RUPD was] under the impression that [the footage] might have been from a phone camera that somebody had brought in and used and then slipped [Davis] the footage,” Taylor said. “We had no record of her being there, and I’m really curious how she got in without going through security.”

Davis said she and her crew were not asked for identification when she entered.

“We weren’t carded at the time,” she said. “If we were, then we certainly would have presented anything asked for by law enforcement.”

Wiess Social Vice President Jimmy Pearson said Davis should not have been able to attend NOD without being registered as a guest of a Rice student.

Several individuals filed complaints during NOD about a subject in possession of a video camera, Pearson, a Wiess senior, said.

NOD security coordinator Charlie Foucar said he stopped Davis in a stairwell and asked her to leave.

“She was filming with a video camera,” Foucar, a Wiess sophomore, said. “Basically, I confronted her at the party, and I asked her what she was doing. She told me she was making a home video. At that point I contacted [Pearson] — who was in charge of the party — and he confronted her and asked her to stop filming.”

Foucar said he did not ask Davis to identify herself when he confronted her. Davis said she was not asked to identify herself at any point during the evening.

“I would not have misrepresented myself if anybody had asked who I was with or who I was, but nobody did,” Davis said.

But Wiess Social Vice President Michelle Kerner said she also stopped Davis at NOD. Davis claimed to be working for the Thresher, Kerner, a Wiess junior, said.

Davis denied she made such a claim and said she does not recall being stopped by a female student at the party.

Lovett College senior Jacki Craig, who appeared in the NOD footage, said she was unaware Davis recorded her on video until the first broadcast aired.

“I am pissed that this woman just came in and was videotaping me,” Craig said. “Even if she was a Rice student, videotaping people without permission is creepy, inappropriate — and in her case totally unprofessional.”

Craig, who is 21, said she believes the footage was irrelevant to a report covering alcohol-related crime and that it made her feel like her safety at the party was compromised.

“The footage was used to get people to stop flipping channels,” she said. “The kicker is that this year, I’ve hardly had anything to drink. I had one beer before I walked from my house to Rice. I planned on being sober to ensure my safety, which obviously did not happen.”

Craig said at least 10 people have called her to tell her they saw her in the broadcast even though her face was blurred to conceal her identity.

“I don’t care who knows it was me — I know it was me,” she said. “I am not into people taking video of me without me knowing it, either. It’s as bad as someone taking a camera phone into a changing room and snapping pictures. You’re not naked, but it’s still an invasion of privacy when it’s broadcast.”

Jones College senior Jasmine Davis, who was also videotaped by KPRC, said the footage was irrelevant to a broadcast that was supposed to be about drinking and driving.

“Going to NOD, thinking you’re in a safe environment, and then [finding] out that you’re on the 6:00 news absolutely ass-naked is pretty upsetting,” Jasmine Davis said. “I wasn’t even drunk at NOD, and I didn’t drive home that night.”

Amy Davis said the NOD footage was meant to provide her viewers with a visual representation of her story.

“We went [to the party] because we knew there would be police officers there and we knew there would be students drinking,” Amy Davis said.

End of article

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