Ride-along with PSafe part two: student details Friday rounds

USD sophomore Sean Spinney relates the second installment of his experience riding along with USD Public Safety officers on a routine weekend night shift. Spinney answers calls with the officers and makes notes of the happenings on campus. Spinney arranged the ride-along through USD Public Safety Captain Quinton Kawahara. For the purposes of this story, the Public Safety officer Spinney accompanied will be referred to as "Officer G."

At 10 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 2, I met Officer G - the officer I rode with on Sept. 17 - at the Department of Public Safety Office in Hughes 151. Officer G informed me that there have been some unusual occurrences on campus since the last ride-along. Shortly prior to my arrival, there were two people reportedly peeping into the Presidio Terrace Apartment windows, although it was later determined that a residential life staff member was updating apartment locks. In the past weeks, a non-student was seen slashing tires in the Alcala Vista Apartments, and there were thefts reported in the University Terrace Apartments.

Officer G explained that there were only three officers on duty, instead of the usual six for the evening shift, and that if the night was busy we would be going from call to call. We got in a patrol vehicle and began our campus rounds.

At 10:09 p.m., after stopping to tell students not to skateboard on campus roads, we parked in a spot near the San Antonio de Padua Apartments and began watching cars go through the stop sign intersection. After watching several cars drive safely through the intersection, we took a loop around campus at 10:26 p.m. and relocated to the Missions Parking Structure to watch cars at the large intersection.

At 10:55 p.m., a car drove too quickly through the stop sign and we followed shortly behind. After seeing the patrol vehicle's flashing lights, the car stopped in the middle of the road next to some parked cars. Officer G got on the loudspeaker and told the driver to pull up further and park on the side of the road. Officer G checked the driver's license, registration, insurance and student ID and gave the driver a warning.

At 11 p.m. we got back in the patrol vehicle and drove around campus again. Dispatch did not receive calls for an hour, and campus was quiet. After an hour of nothing, we heard another officer over the radio reporting that he saw students taking pictures in the fountain in front of Maher Hall. He was concerned that they were trying to stand on the center of the fountain, a potentially unsafe activity.

We drove up to the Law School Circle and parked on the sidewalk next to Maher Hall. Officer G and I chuckled at the strange looks we received from the students, who were now putting their shoes back on. The officer that reported the call over the radio was behind us and tried to find the students, but they had already entered Maher Hall before he spoke to them. We got back on the road and headed back to the Valley.

At 12:30 a.m. we saw a car driving into the Missions Parking Structure that was very low to the ground, which is an indicator that there are too many people in the car. We drove over to where the car parked and witnessed several students getting out of the car, one from the trunk. It was clear that the car had too many people in it.

Rather than stopping when Officer G pulled up next to their car, the students ran giggling into their residence hall. One student, the driver, was lagging behind the group and stopped. Officer G told the student to call the other passengers and tell them to come back down. Three males that were in the car came down quickly, but five females that were in the car did not come out. Another Public Safety officer came and accompanied one of the students to the girls' floor to find them, but they were unsuccessful. The officers subsequently found a female student who was able to point out where the girls live.

At 12:48 a.m., the officer went back into the building with the female student and came out shortly after with all five of the girls, dressed very differently than when we initially saw them. Officer G asked the group which one of them was in the trunk, and if anyone had had anything to drink. A few students admitted to drinking, but no one admitted to riding in the trunk. Officer G asked again, and one student finally admitted to being in the trunk.

Officer G breathalyzed the students individually and gave their ID information to the Public Safety dispatch. I received strange looks from the students, and decided to move closer to explain why I was there. When Officer G finished breathalyzing, he informed two of the students they would need to be breathalyzed again in 15 minutes. Officer G explained that if a student's blood alcohol content reaches a low enough level in the second breathalyzer test, then the student would not be required to go to detox. Public Safety Officers reserve this procedure for students who do not appear belligerently drunk and look to be able to take care of themselves.

One student's BAC went down and was low enough to stay. The other students' BAC was still too high. Officer G told the nine students that those who were drinking would be written up for underage alcohol consumption, and everyone would be written up for riding in an unsafe vehicle. He explained to me afterward that had the students not fled, the consequences would have been different.

At 1:33 a.m., we got back into the patrol vehicle and escorted the student to detox. On our way back to campus we saw a girl wildly dancing with several others in the back seat of a cab. We laughed and guessed that we'd be seeing them later if they were students. But the cab did not get off at USD's exit.

At 2:09 a.m., shortly after getting back to campus, we followed a cab that had too many people in the back seat. The cab stopped and five people got out. We saw one person put a large bottle of clear liquid in her purse. Officer G turned on the patrol vehicle's flashing lights and called the five passengers over to the car. Officer G asked if anyone had alcohol on them, to which the five replied "no." Officer G asked again, and received the same response.