UI police arrests down last year

University of Iowa police arrested fewer people last year than they did in 2010, but still more than in 2009, leaving school and community leaders focused on crime prevention.

“We would like to see the trend continue and the numbers continue to go down in all categories,” said Chuck Green, director of UI public safety. “Crime can happen any place and any time, and college campuses are not immune. But this is a relatively safe place, and we hope to keep it that way.”

UI officers arrested 1,792 people last year, down slightly from the 1,970 arrested in 2010 but up nearly 88 percent from the 955 people arrested in 2009 – before the Iowa City Council enacted a law in June 2010 prohibiting everyone under the legal drinking age of 21 from being in a bar after 10 p.m.

Much of the increase in arrests from 2009 to 2010 was tied to liquor law violations, and now – following the first full year of enforcement of the 21-only law – public safety officials are cautiously optimistic that the enforcement changes, along with other community efforts, are making a difference.

“(The 21-only law) is part of the reason liquor license violations seem to be going in the right direction,” Green said.

Arrests for liquor law violations dropped from 932 in 2010 to 858 last year, according to newly released statistics. Arrests for drunkenness dropped from 511 in 2010 to 439 last year.

Green also credited enforcement around Kinnick Stadium for some of the declines. School officials in 2010 announced plans to increase enforcement of alcohol violations and unruly behavior before, during and after football games.

“It really is a team effort,” he said. “It's not one single item that can produce the positive trends we are seeing.”

UI police also made slightly fewer arrests for drug and narcotic violations last year, with 121 compared with 134 in 2010. And there was a drop in simple assault arrests on campus, with 17 last year compared with 40 in 2010, according to the report.

Green pointed out that more than half of the charges filed from UI police arrests last year did not involve students. Of the 2,117 total charges filed, 897 – or 42 percent – were filed against UI students.

Of the total 1,428 alcohol-related charges filed last year following UI police arrests, 557 – or 39 percent – were filed against UI students.

“So often students are blamed for everything,” Green said. “But we have a lot of responsible students.”

Green said university officials, city leaders, bar owners and other advocacy groups have to continue efforts to educate out-of-towners about the laws and about the enforcement efforts.

“Let's face it, we get people from a lot of other communities coming into Iowa City, and lots of them aren't aware of the laws here,” Green said.

Kelly Bender, community harm reduction initiatives coordinator for the UI's Partnership for Alcohol Safety group, said Iowa and the UI consistently has had higher rates of high-risk drinking, and changing a community's reputation can take time.

“We know we have some work to do,” Bender said. “But we know we are on the right track with our plan.”

Anecdotally, she said, officers and community partners believe fewer people are coming to Iowa City from out of town to drink. But, Bender said, her group and its partners are going to continue to track trends and look for more ways to alter the drinking environment.

“We know that education alone doesn't do anything to change behavior around alcohol issues,” she said. “We need to look at advertising and outlet density and enforcement of alcohol laws and how that contributes to the normalization of high-risk drinking.”