Police activity has increased dramatically on the University of Massachusetts campus, stemming from events that have hurt the school's image, and resulting in a substantial increase in student arrests - especially since the riots that occurred at the end of the fall semester.
The University of Massachusetts Police Department, since the beginning of this semester, has arrested 256 people on campus as of April 15 - a period of about two and a half months. That figure compares to the 840 arrests on campus in all 12 months of 2006, according to Patrick Archbald, Deputy Chief of UMPD. Some 95 percent of the arrests are for alcohol-related offenses, he said.
Overall, Archbald said police are trying to encourage "a change in behaviors by curbing alcohol and drug use on campus."
The majority of those arrested face charges for misdemeanors, he said. A misdemeanor is a crime less serious than a felony and usually punishable by no more than one year in jail.
About three to four percent of arrests are for drug-related offenses, he said. Arrests are more rare for drug trafficking, a crime classified as a felony, and punishable by stiffer fines and prison sentences, Archbald explained.
The remaining one to two percent of arrests involve problems with domestic violence, indecent exposure and theft.
The police crackdown comes after the black eye the University received from the Dec. 15 riots in the Southwest housing area after the school's football team lost 28-17 to Appalachian State in the NCAA Division I Championship. Some 2,000 students poured into areas in and around the buildings in Southwest, breaking windows and starting fires. The destruction cost the University $100,000, according to the UMass Office of News and Information.
The increased police presence was evident by the first weekend of this semester, with the arrests of 29 people on the UMass campus, according to police reports from that weekend.
The stepped-up presence also follows a November 2005 ABC Primetime program that labeled UMass as one of the more violent schools in the country. The Springfield Republican later labeled the ABC report as flawed and other work indicates that UMass has been penalized for reporting crime more honestly than most other institutions.
"There is direct correlation to the label [of one of the more violent schools in the country] and the need [for increased police presence], which the administration is responding to with additional staffing," Archbald said.
According to Archbald, Vice Chancellor Michael Gargano asked for an increase of police presence on campus. Since then, police added about 325 surveillance cameras on campus at a cost of $500,000. The newly installed cameras played a key role in the arrests and prosecution of several students involved with the December riots.
Since March 2006, five officers have been added to the UMass Police Department - a 10 percent increase from 56 to 61 officers.
Although drug-associated crime plays a lesser role on campus than alcohol, Archbald said there's been a "refocusing by the police department to concentrate on the amount of drug use on campus." The refocusing has included more undercover work in an effort to find drug dealers, with a consequent increase in search warrants, he said.
This is not the first time the campus has reacted to student behavior with more police action. In November 2003, major destruction occurred on campus related to the Boston Red Sox performance in the 2003 ALCS. In those incidents students flipped cars, lit furniture on fire and destroyed other property.
In 2003, police arrested 87 people in alcohol-related disturbances, which increased to 266 such arrests in 2004, according to UMPD. Likewise, the 37 drug-related arrests in 2003 increased to 98 in 2004.
Corey Charron can be reached at ccharron@student.umass.edu.
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