In 2010, four sexual assaults were reported to Butler University Police Department. A student group from the Real Business Experience branch of the College of Business formed a project to help prevent some of the assaults.

Junior Devin Goodnight and sophomore Brock Brothers used Drink Detective, a ShotSpot product, to test for more than 60 different drugs in beverages as part of the project this semester.

“If I was just a little bit in doubt of what was in my drink, I would have Drink Detective on me,” Brothers said. “I hate to compare it–but it’s like a condom. It’d be good to have on you just so you know you’re going to be safe.”

In terms of alcohol consumption, Sarah Barnes Diaz, health education and outreach programs coordinator, said she suggests if a student is going to drink anything, the student makes sure he or she sees the drink being opened or poured and keeps an eye on it.

“I want to be very clear, though, about the fact that alcohol is actually the greatest contributor to an increased risk for sexual assault,” Diaz said, adding that most sexual assault cases the university sees are alcohol-related.

Goodnight said he is impressed with Butler, the prevention strategies offered on campus and everything else the university has done for students.

“It’s obvious the university recognizes this as a problem on campus,” he said. “We were really trying to get Red Cup Culture on board with us because they could distribute a large amount to students.”

Despite Goodnight’s efforts, the university turned down  initiatives to market the product on Butler’s campus.

The decision to not market Drink Detective resulted in numerous posts on social media sites, most of which questioned the university’s efforts to prevent sexual assault.

“It was never a concern about talking about rape on campus,” Diaz said. “That was part of what was concerning to me about some of the posts on Facebook—comments about how Red Cup Culture and Butler weren’t supportive ofrape-prevention practices. We want to make sure it’s known that that is absolutely not the case.”

In an October email sent to Brothers, Irene Stevens, dean of student life, wrote publicity intended to promote Drink Detective didn’t meet campus guidelines. She cited multiple reasons, including the lack of support from local victim advocacy organization Center of Hope and local forensic toxicology labs.

“What we want students to do is start paying attention to who’s mixing your drink, not putting it down anywhere, not giving anyone the opportunity to try and drug you,” Stevens said. “Do we want to put all of our eggs in the basket of a testthat may or may not be accurate? No. We don’t think that’s a good skill for students to learn. We all need to learn the skills of being responsible for ourselves and each other and making adult choices.”

Stevens said the university worries the product will be seen as a safety tool to be depended upon and not as an extra precaution.

“It really could give you a false sense of security,” Diaz said.

She said the concerns were not attempts to avoid talking about rape on campus or act like it doesn’t happen.

“To promote this during Red Cup Culture doesn’t really make sense,” Diaz said. “There is no sales pitch in that program other than staying safe on campus.”

Vice President of Student Affairs Levester Johnson said the biggest concern on college campuses is alcohol consumption in general.

“Abuse, overuse—it’s those types of behaviors that lead to other things,” Johnson said. “Poor decision-making, going too far as it relates to sexual interaction—the reason continues to be alcohol.”

Johnson said Butler has multiple outreach programs intended to educate students on a variety of topics, including sexual assault and alcoholism.

“It’s important for people to know that we are supportive of the great ideas and initiatives that students come up with on a daily basis, but that doesn’t mean we’re always going to agree,” Johnson said, adding that Butler partners with students on a multitude of projects.

“Our approach to addressing sexual assault, alcohol abuse and issues of that sort is multi-pronged,” he said. “You’ve got to address it from not just one avenue and one direction but multiple directions.”

“Therefore, the education that’s taking place through PAWS and GEAR and so forth are paramount and extremely important.”

As for their business project, Goodnight, Brothers and their partners are now running the business on Facebook instead of trying to promote it through the school.

Goodnight said the idea was attractive to them because it’s attacking social issues and not just selling a product.

Diaz said sexual assault prevention does not solely lie with the potential victim.

“We all play a role in preventing sexual assault,” Diaz said. “There are things that we can do in our day-to-day life–not just Thursday, Friday, Saturday night at a party or at the bar–to change the course of conversations, to change perceptions, to address myths that exist about what is okay and what’s not okay. There’s something we can all do to prevent sexual assault.”

Butler Univeristy Police Department and other campus groups will review the recent lockdown on campus.

So far, assessment of the situation has been positive.

“I think, all in all, it went well, but there’s room for improvement,” Assistant Police Chief Andy Ryan said.

Ryan said he recieved positive feedback from students and parents about how the lockdown was handled, especially regarding BUPD’s communication with the campus.

Campus was locked down Sunday, Nov. 4, after a robbery at a nearby CVS turned into a police chase on the campus.

Ben Hunter, executive director of public safety, said a debriefing is being planned with representatives from groups all over campus to review how the lockdown process went from all ends.

“It’s one thing to say, ‘Yeah it went fine from our perspective,’” he said. “That doesn’t mean it went well from other folks’ perspectives.”

Overall, Hunter said he thought the lockdown went well.

“From my standpoint, when no one gets hurt and we’re able to send a message out and we’re able to protect the campus, life and property, it’s a good day,” Hunter said.

Hunter said this doesn’t mean the campus won’t be looking at external and internal processes and how they can improve.

Ryan said deciding when the university should go into lockdown is done on a case-by-case basis.

The dispatcher made the decision in this case, he said. There’s a button in the dispatch center, and, once pressed, the card readers all over campus go into lockdown mode.

The campus was not in a total lockdown at first, Ryan said. BUPD officers had to manually lock some doors that do not have card-reader access at  Gallahue Hall, Robertson Hall, Fairbanks Center and Jordan Hall.

“We could really use some more funding for more card readers,” Ryan said.

Once a lockdown is called, BUPD handles the situation at hand. In this case, officers helped the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department catch one robber.

When the robber was secured, BUPD officers went through each building on campus to search for his accomplice.

During the lockdown, students are expected to listen to BUPD’s communication and stay off campus, but that is not what Assistant Police Chief Bill Weber found.

“When I was out walking, I still saw students out and about,” Weber said. “Just because we lock down a building, we cannot force you to stay in.”

Weber said students might not have listened to BUPD’s warnings because they did not get the message or because students did not feel it applied to them.

Ryan said most students did cooperate, but he said he thinks they might have not taken it seriously at first.

“People have to make informed decisions, and that’s why we’re trying to give them the information as quickly as we could,” he said. “I wish they would trust our judgment as the university police department to recognize the seriousness of the situation.”

Students walking around campus when they should be indoors could also cause confusion with the investigation and search for potential danger, Ryan said.

“IMPD had K-9s with them to help with the search,” Ryan said. “Dogs don’t care who they bite.”

During emergency situations, BUPD only has one dispatcher to field all calls.

Weber said it’s important for students to subscribe to DawgAlert for their email or phone because that is the best way to find out what to do in an emergency situation.

Each department on campus is supposed to have an emergency response plan, Ryan said.

This case was Butler’s first lockdown. Ryan said the only other time the campus has come close to being on lockdown is when Officer James Davis was shot in 2004.

The planned debriefing will take place after Thanksgiving Break.

Late Sunday morning, Butler University experienced a lockdown due to the presence of armed robbers on campus.

The barrage of updates via text message, phone call and email alerted students of the suspects’ movements from the Atherton Mall toward the camel.

Yes, the camel.  The alert clearly meant the canal, but one typo turned a very serious situation into a joke.

The whole situation highlights two major issues: how easily Butler students will trivialize a serious situation, and the importance of double checking spelling.

Shortly after noon, a Twitter account was created called The Butler Camel, tweeting as an imaginary camel on campus.

Within an hour of the account’s creation it had over 400 followers.

And as of late Monday evening, it had 1,023 followers.

I admittedly took part in mocking the absurd situation, tweeting about the “Butler camel” and posting memes about the camel on Facebook.

However, both the Butler camel Twitter account and I addressed this was still a serious situation and that people needed to stay indoors.

“(The camel joke) was a negative effect,” junior Brook Becker said. “It really took away from the seriousness of the situation. The typo also really created some confusion.”

The alert read “The Butler University Police Department is investigating an armed robbery. The suspect was last seen running towrad the camel. Please avoid the area. Please seek shelter inside of a facility.”

It is understandable that these alerts are sent out in a hurry, but two very noticeable mistakes in one alert is an issue.

Butler administrators need to make certain that information being sent to students is 100 percent accurate in situations as serious as Sunday’s.

The administration cannot afford confused or misinformed students if dangerous people are roaming around campus.

However, it is also students’ responsibility to realize the gravity of a situation.

While the lockdown was in effect, I saw students heading to Atherton Union, presumably to get lunch.

It is possible that these students did not know about the situation, but with the saturation of alerts from the university, that seems unlikely.

Situations like Sunday’s lockdown should be taken with the utmost seriousness by students.

When students don’t treat such situations seriously, they take their safety into their own hands.

Students should not need to be reminded about incidents like the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre or the Aurora, Colo., movie theater shooting to take situations like this seriously.

While the joke of the Butler camel is highly entertaining, I hope that Butler students and the administration take this situation and learn from it.

Students should take security alerts seriously, and the university needs to make sure its message is always clear.

Butler University students took to social media Sunday—about a camel.

During the hunt for an armed man on and around campus, students received a message from Butler University Police Department stating the suspect was seen running “towrad the camel.”

I could handle a few misspellings as long as they meant I was staying informed.

BUPD is to be commended for keeping students in the loop about dangerous activity on campus.

I received call after text after email from DawgAlert, and even more information came via BUPD’s constantly-updated Twitter account.

Sure, the messages were repetitive and hastily written at times.

But I would much rather have too many warnings than not enough, a misspelled warning instead of a delayed one.

BUPD was quick to put campus on lockdown and deactivate ID scanners for buildings, preventing the fleeing man from hiding inside—or worse, taking aim at students.

And judging from the pictures and eyewitness tweets that filled my feed, BUPD posted guards and worked well with Indianapolis Metropolitan Police to apprehend the man—and more importantly, keep students safe.

Ben Hunter, executive director of public safety, said he has never faced a situation like this in his four-and-a-half years at Butler.

Still, he and his team responded admirably and did their job well.

So continue to laugh about The Butler Camel.

His tweets are great, and Assistant Police Chief Andrew Ryan is enjoying the hype, according to Twitter.

But don’t forget the serious work that BUPD did in keeping us all informed and safe.

Butler University Police Department is looking into who was responsible for a theft in Lilly Hall on Monday night.

A wallet, a phone and an iPod were stolen from the costume shop of Lilly Hall sometime before 10 p.m.

Students were in the building, practicing for the theatre department’s “Bali Dream.”

When the cast was out of the room and upstairs doing quick changes, the items were taken from the costume shop in the basement.

In 11 weeks of police reports, 23 cases of theft from buildings have occurred. Nine have been reported in Lilly Hall.

In April, BUPD issued a warning to students after seven reports of theft were reported in 10 weeks.

No such warning has been issued this school year.

“We’re kind of missing the gap on prescription drugs.”

Butler University is looking to make this conception a thing of the past with a drug take-back day and the creation of a new pharmacy-related group on campus.

take-back day

The take-back day will occur Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in front of Butler University Police Department’s building.

The take-back day allows Butler community members to get rid of prescription drugs they no longer need.

Andrew Ryan, assistant chief of police, said he was contacted by Sarah Barnes Diaz, health education and outreach program coordinator, about hosting a take-back site.

Ryan was told by a local Drug Enforcement Administration official that the area outside BUPD will replace Tabernacle Presbyterian Church as a local prescription drug drop off site.

“I think it’s important that we show the community we’re willing to get involved,” Ryan said. “I’m not sure how many people we’re going to get to participate, so hopefully we’re prepared.”

Ryan said he hopes to create a drop off zone going north on Sunset Avenue and a second one going east on Hampton Drive. Individuals who have leftover medication or prescribed drugs they no longer

use will be able to drop their medications into five-gallon buckets in a drive-through format.

Collected drugs will be sealed in cardboard boxes, weighed and delivered to the local state police post for disposal on Tuesday.

Members of Generation Rx, a new on-campus group looking to inform students about the dangers of prescription drugs, will be involved in the collection of drugs.

On April 28 a nationwide take-back day occurred, and U.S. citizens released more than 552,000 pounds of unwanted or expired medications at 5,659 take-back sites, Diaz said.

“There has been interest (in a take-back site at Butler) in the past, but we’ve had trouble with scheduling and getting the request in on time,” Diaz said. “Any time we can offer a service to benefit the campus community, we want to do that.”

Diaz and Ryan said they also want to avoid people dumping these drugs into toilets or sinks in order to be environmentally friendly.

Annette McFarland, assistant professor of pharmacy practice, said a key reason for the take-back being held at Butler lies in the statistics associated with prescription drugs.

“The use of these drugs (among 18-24-year olds) has exceeded the use of some of the more commonly misused and abused drugs, like heroin and cocaine,” McFarland said.

According to a recent study, more than half of all college students will be offered a prescription drug at some point, and about 30 percent of those individuals end up trying the drug.

McFarland said four classes of prescription drugs are most commonly used and subsequently abused by college students: pain medications, stimulants, anxiety medications and sleep aids.

The reasons for the use of these specific drugs lie in their purposes and expected results.

Most students take stimulants to study or party longer, McFarland said. They may then take sleep aids to counteract the effects of the stimulants.

Diaz said prescription medications are becoming the new gateway drugs because they seem safer since they are medically prescribed.

“There is a lack of a sense of danger, and there isn’t awareness about the dangers,” Diaz said. “They are safe under prescribed circumstances.”

Diaz said many students come to campus on various medications, allowing fellow community members greater access to experiment with those drugs.

Fifth-year pharmacy major Samantha Christie, a member of Butler’s newly-created Generation Rx organization, said she knows abuse of prescription drugs occurs on campus.

“I think there’s a lack of accurate information about prescription drugs,” Christie said. “(People) see it as a prescription drug and not an illicit drug.”

One of the main goals of the Generation Rx program will be peer education on prescription medication, Christie said.

Christie and two other students are currently working with Diaz and College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences assistant professors Tracy Sprunger and Samuel Gurevitz to establish the program at Butler.

Sprunger and Gurevitz attended a nationwide conference on drug and alcohol addiction during the summer and learned about Ohio State’s Generation Rx program, which is “the gold standard,” Christie said.

Members of that organization have visited elementary schools, high schools and nursing homes to teach individuals about different medications and poison control.

Christie said the organization is working with Peers Advocating Wellness for Students because prescription drug abuse is not covered by the group like alcohol and sexual assault problems are.

Butler’s Generation Rx organization hopes to work with the residence life department Life and Greek Educators, Advocates and Resources to inform those living on campus about the dangers of misusing prescription drugs.

McFarland said organizations outside of the Butler community are also available to help students with prescription drug problems.

The National Council on Patient Information and Education hosts a website, http://www.talkaboutrx.org, that is related to prescription drug abuse.

“It’s not just a concern on college campuses,” McFarland said, “but it is definitely a major health concern in the United States.”

Diaz said the university has ways to assist those abusing or misusing prescription drugs as well.

The Assessment and Care Team, led by Sally Click, dean of student services, meets biweekly to discuss issues relating to prescription medications.

Residential life is also encouraging students to purchase lockboxes to protect their medications.

“We’re working to empower students,” Diaz said, “to prevent the growth of the issue on campus.”

The Butler University Police Department continues to search for the man who impersonated an undercover policeman between Jordan Hall and the Health and Sciences Building.

On Sept. 11, at approximately 10 p.m., a plain-clothed man approached a female student and asked the student to perform a breathalyzer test.

The female student did not alert Butler University Police Department in time for officers to respond.

The department has no leads as to who the suspect is or why he was on campus.

The Indiana State Excise Police have confirmed with BUPD that the suspect was not an excise officer.

Travis Thickstun, corporal for the state department, said the suspect’s actions are not consistent with the procedures followed by excise police.

“Ensuring the safety of students and residents on or near Butler’s campus remains our top priority,” Thickstun said.

Ben Hunter, chief of staff and executive director of public safety, said the reason the timely warning issued by the BUPD regarding the incident was sent a week late was because BUPD was not notified until the weekend after the event.

After receiving notice he said BUPD had to confirm with excise police that it was not an excise officer and in fact a man impersonating a police officer.

“This incident is something that absolutely disturbs both us at Butler and the excise police because I have never had to deal with an issue of impersonation,” Hunter said.

Bill Weber, assistant chief of police, said there are no leads on the suspect.

“The only way we will be able to catch this impersonator is having a student or an officer being in the right place at the right time,” Weber said.

Thickstun, Hunter and Weber all said if students are approached by an undercover cop they can request to see a badge and ID and also request for a uniformed officer to be present.

The excise police now are linked to BUPD radios, making it easier for a BUPD officer to be present by a student’s request if an excise officer stops the student.

They also said students should report anything suspicious for BUPD to inspect so it can be aware of the situation.

“We can only stop this from happening with the 4,000 pairs of eyes we have walking around campus,” Weber said, “in places the BUPD cannot be.”

Students and the rest of the community need to educate themselves about their rights with respect to the police.

Last Tuesday, Butler University Police Department released a timely warning about a police impersonator.

On Sept. 11, a man claiming to be a police officer stopped a student and had her complete a breathalyzer test..

The student reported the man to BUPD afterward.

The department quickly verified this was not one of their officers and contacted the excise officers working on campus this year.

However, the officers are not on campus every day or even every week.

The respective officers took several days to make certain this was not one of their officers.

“To my knowledge, nothing like this has happened at Butler University since I came here,” Ben Hunter, chief of staff and executive director of public safety, said.

BUPD wanted to be absolutely certain before releasing any warnings regarding this case, Hunter said.

There have been several complaints about the excise police, but this is obviously a different problem.

However, students and other community members can make repeat events less likely—and keep themselves safer in general—by remembering their rights.

Any person who is stopped by an officer has the right to see the officer’s badge.

“Our officers keep their badges on display,” Hunter said. “Excise officers usually do not take any action without a uniformed officer present.”

“And you can always call BUPD on the non-emergency number if you are stopped by one of our officers to confirm who the officer is,” Hunter said. “Even if excise stops a community member, the person can request a BUPD officer be present.”

BUPD is also requesting that excise police tune in to the campus police department’s radio so that it can confirm the presence and location of officers faster.

“We aren’t sure why it’s happening now,” Assistant Chief of Police Bill Weber said, “or what the intent is.”

Police impersonators should obviously be considered a bigger threat than grievances about alcohol enforcement.

Impersonating an officer is a felony.

Unlawfully detaining someone is also a felony.

Hunter had a few more tips for students.

Whenever possible, walk in pairs or groups.

Be on the lookout for suspicious activity, and look out for fellow community members.

This person broke the law and should be arrested, Hunter said. But there’s no guarantee the suspect will ever come back.

“Some people might think that the attention this case is getting will drive away whoever did this,” Hunter said. “That’s what we want.”

BUPD has no leads in the case.

Published Sept. 25, 2012

Butler University Police Department has the power to arrest in certain areas outside of Butler’s campus.

BUPD officers are also equipped with firearms and other tools used by Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers.

So why won’t BUPD release all incident reports to those who request them like other police forces do?

On Sept. 11, a  male student shot another student with a pellet gun at Apartment Village.

Though the offender could be charged with a crime in Indiana, little is known about who did it.

A student committed a crime.

But since he was a Butler student and the crime happened on campus, there’s no telling who it was or what has happened to him.

BUPD has given a laundry list of reasons to not release the full details of the incident, including the name of the student who violated both state law and university rules.

All that is known is what BUPD is obligated to maintain by federal law: a crime log that reports the bare bones of crimes and other incidents on campus—a simple what, when and where.

The names of perpetrators are left out, even in extreme circumstances like sexual and violent crimes.

In the pellet gun case, the department opted to not release a full incident report but decided to grant access to a redacted version of the report.

This version had names and other key information blacked out.

While public institutions are required by law to release full incident reports, private institutions are not required to do so but have the option.

And since officers at Butler have full arresting powers and act as the sole police force for Butler, they should follow the same public records laws.

If someone commits a crime on campus, it is a matter of public safety.

Students and faculty should be aware of who committed the crime and how that person was punished so they don’t have to live in fear.

BUPD may not have an obligation outlined by law to release reports, but it has a moral one.

Butler isn’t just where students go to school.

This is their home.

In any other neighborhood, incident reports make people aware of those who may be causing trouble around them.

The department has also refused to release reports if the victims of on-campus incidents decide not to press charges.

Anytime a report is filed with the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office, it becomes public record, and the release can’t be denied.

But at Butler, if the victim decides to not press charges, the incident report—including the name of the suspect—stays under lock and key.

This isn’t true in the real world.

Off Butler’s campus, crimes are reported and the criminals are named, even if there are no formal charges pressed.

BUPD must stop trying to protect those who commit crimes on campus, in our neighborhoods and in our  homes.

To not release the names of victims of sexual and violent crimes is understandable.

But it is unacceptable to not hold law-breakers and rule-violators responsible for their actions.

If students make the choice to commit a crime, they should be treated as any other adult would be if they broke the law.

Students are adults who know the difference between right and wrong.

Their status as students at a private university does not set them apart from the rest of the world and grant them anonymity when they commit crimes.

The rest of the university community may feel as though perpetrators get off with a slap on the wrist in many situations because punishments are not released.

BUPD is a legitimate police force, and it needs to act more like one.

Releasing incident reports consistently is vital to the community to show students that BUPD takes crime seriously.

Published Sept. 18, 2012

A student shot another student in the head and shoulder with a pellet gun at Apartment Village on Sept. 11.

Ben Hunter, chief of staff and executive director of public safety, refused to release the full incident report. The Collegian was granted access to a redacted version of the report.

Around 6 p.m., Officer Jason Downs and Sgt. Tony Rivera of Butler University Police Department responded to a call from the victim at Apartment Village Building H.

When officers arrived at the scene, they found the victim had bloody welts near her ear and on her shoulder, according to the report.

The victim was able to identify where the shots came from. Officers then questioned the suspect, a black male student, who said he aimed at the victim and shot her with the air pellet gun.

Officers then photographed the evidence, which included an air pellet gun and pellets, according to the report.

The victim declined to press criminal charges. The case has been referred to the office of Student Affairs.

As of press time, Irene Stevens, dean of student life, said that the case was still in the disciplinary process and that hearings had not yet concluded.

Stevens said that university policy prevented her from commenting further on the matter.

Hunter said that the case is still open and that the victim may still decide to press charges.

The incident is listed on the daily crime log maintained by BUPD in accordance with the Clery Act, a federal law that requires campus crimes to be recorded.

Room 103 in Apartment Village Building H, is the listed location in the report, which is open to public inspection and can be found on BUPD’s website.

When The Collegian attempted to contact those living in the apartment, a woman answered the door. She said that she had heard about the incident but had no comment on the details.

Collegian sources have linked former men’s basketball player Chrishawn Hopkins to the incident.

University officials have not confirmed or denied these reports. Hopkins has not commented on the issue.