Crime Prevention Tip of the Week: Criminals are predators. A person who is intoxicated to the point of physical and mental impairment makes him or herself an easy target for a potential attacker. Alcohol impairs many of the faculties we depend on to make good sound decisions. Impaired individuals may take chances a sober person would never consider. Follow UT’s advice: don’t go out alone. Have friends who take care of each other when walking about, or going to parties. One sober friend in your group greatly enhances your safety, and also keeps the situation more fun. Campus Watch: Below is a summary of campus criminal activity reported to or observed by The University of Texas At Austin Police Department Patrol Officers during the between Sunday 2/3/19 and Saturday 2/9/19. 2/8/2019 at 11:46 p.m., 2350 Robert Dedman Dr (Performing Arts Center) Public Intoxication: UTPD received reports of a woman running from car to car, knocking on the windows, in an effort to find an Uber. Officers found the woman a couple of blocks away, and they observed she had somehow fallen into mud. Her speech was slurred, and unsurprisingly she smelled heavily of alcohol. The woman continued to demand an Uber, but it is not safe to release someone to a stranger in these circumstances. Officers were able to contact the muddy woman’s sister, who arrived and agreed to take responsibility for the intoxicated woman, driving her home. No criminal charges were pursued. 2/8/2019 at 6:52 a.m., 1601 Trinity St. (Health Transformation Building) Psychiatric Emergency: UTPD officers received a report that a homeless woman had entered a UT Building and was making bizarre statements. Every UTPD officer is certified as a Mental Health Officer within the first year of service, and this is a skillset we rely on every day in our community. A UTPD Mental Health Officer arrived and interviewed the transient, and learned she had lost all of her possessions recently, and was considering harming herself, in addition to other serious life stressors. The officer discussed various resources in Austin, including the Mobile Crisis Outreach Team, the Women and Children’s Center, and transitional housing programs. Unfortunately, during the conversation, the woman made a suicidal outcry, and officers recognized now was not the time to take her to these resources. They determined the woman was an imminent danger to herself and others, due to mental illness, and an officer placed her under a Peace Officer Emergency Detention. She was transported to the psychiatric department of the Dell Seton Medical Center at UT without further incident. 2/7/2019 at 10:48 p.m., 2900 Guadalupe St. Driving While Intoxicated: A UTPD officer observed a car aggressively take off from a green light at a very high rate of speed. The officer also checked and found that this car’s registration was expired. When the officer turned on his blue and red overhead lights, the car took three blocks to slow down. UTPD knows from experience that aggressive driving, and an inability to divide attention or make good decisions when driving (such as that confusion and initial noncompliance when being stopped) are indicators of potential intoxication. Unsurprisingly, the driver told the officer he had only had “two beers.” The officer smelled a heavy odor of alcohol and saw physical signs of intoxication on the driver’s eyes. The driver went through the Standardized Field Sobriety Tests and showed clues that provided the officers with Probable Cause the driver was intoxicated. The driver was arrested for DWI and transported to Travis County Jail, where he agreed to provide a sample of his breath on Travis County’s Intoxilyzer Machine. That sample showed that the driver’s Blood Alcohol Concentration exceeded .08% at the time he was driving. UTPD takes pride in its ability to show discretion in many alcohol related offenses, however when someone combines intoxication with driving a car, that’s dangerous to the whole community. 2/7/2019 at 8:08 p.m., 201 E 21st Street (Jester West Dormitory). Possession of Marijuana, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia: UT’s many Residence Life staff, including the Resident Assistants, train with UTPD on the appropriate way to handle the smell of marijuana that occasionally appears in the halls of UT’s dorms. This evening, RA’s called UTPD with such a report, and officers arrived at a dorm room and followed a distinct odor to a door, and verified there was marijuana being smoked in a particular room. Officers have observed many clever efforts to conceal the scent, but trust me: a heavy odor of Febreze combined with Marijuana is mystery easily solved. In this case, when the student answered the door, he was honest and cooperative, admitting he had smoked marijuana in the room, and handing over his grinder, pipe, and a small amount of marijuana. Honesty in these situations often works in the student’s favor. This material was seized to be destroyed at the police station, and no criminal charges were pursued. The student will have to account for smoking marijuana to the Dean of Students and to Housing and Dining, because this conduct breaks the agreement students make with UT Austin when they occupy a dormitory. His display of cooperation with the dorm staff and UTPD may again work in his favor when the Dean of Students discusses consequences, which are often educational. *The University of Texas Police Department responded to 597 total calls for service, including 181 Alarm Activations, 98 Foot Patrols, 59 Traffic Violations, and 20 Welfare Concerns between Sunday 2/3/19 and Saturday 2/9/19. This week's Campus Watch was prepared by: Officer Dustin Farahnak.
