Each year, VEISHEA brings in thousands of people from around the community to join in on the celebration, giving Ames Police and ISU Police another reason to provide protection and services to the citizens in Ames.

“The influx of these numbers of people coming into our community —literally thousands of people — it makes a difference. When you have that many people, it creates issues,” said Jim Robinson, investigations commander for Ames Police.

VEISHEA begins on a Monday and fills the week with contests, comedians, hypnotists, concerts and other entertainment until the following Saturday.

“The event being spread out over several days makes it a tougher issue too versus having it over a weekend,” said Sgt. Elliot Florer, ISU Police.

You can look at it similarly to a home game for an Iowa State v. Iowa football game, thousands of people come to attend the game and thousands of people come to attend VEISHEA, Robinson said. 

From the law enforcement angle, planning and preparation begin early in hopes of having a safe and successful VEISHEA.

“Realistically, we start preparing for the event the next year immediately after VEISHEA has concluded. It’s a major undertaking,” Robinson said, “but in all reality the majority of our preparation begins about three months before the event. After the first of the year is when we really ramp up and start putting pieces together for handling that many people coming into the community.”

“Beyond normal training, we plan to have extra officers at every event who will also work longer shifts to ensure safety and certainty that every event is covered,” Florer said. “We work with Ames Police and Story County Sherriff’s to make certain of this.” 

VEISHEA meetings are held and committees are formed between Ames Police and ISU Police. The two work in in conjunction with Story County Sheriff’s Office and Iowa State Patrol, Robinson and Florer said.

“Working in conjunction with other law enforcement agencies provides a large under-taking. There are a higher number of arrests that weekend than there are on a typical weekend throughout the year,” Robinson said.

Whether you are walking around campus or driving through the neighborhoods, it will be certain that several officers can be spotted to ensure each citizen’s protection.

“We have enhanced patrols that are out. We have our ‘foot teams’, where our officers are walking around, we have our bicycle team, our Segway team and we have motor units that are out in both marked and unmarked vehicles,” Robinson said.

Rumor has it that a large number of issues and arrests come from people unrelated to the university. This could mean they are students of other schools or family that comes to visit. However, Ames Police and ISU Police don’t investigate in specific information such as how the arrestee is affiliated.

“It’s hard to articulate exactly who is and who is not related to the university. It’s not something that we investigate when an arrest is made whether that individual is connected to [Iowa State] or not,” Robinson said. “Sometimes it’s easy to tell if they provide an address that’s within the residence halls or community, but a lot of times an arrestee will give their home address where they’re from.”

Students of Iowa State and the visitors they bring to the event have an equal chance at getting arrested. There is nothing that would make the two be treated differently, Florer said.

“There’s a good number of people who are related to the university and who are not that both get arrested,” Robinson said.

“We want everyone to act responsibly, it’s a celebration that we don’t want to turn ugly,” Robinson said. “We’ve had some VEISHEAs in the past that had a different face at night compared to what was going on during the day. We want it to where we can treat everyone and have everyone be able to have a good time.”

When attending each of the events during VEISHEA week, know that officers will be in cars, on foot and riding bicycles and Segways in order to ensure safety. Arrests will be made when necessary. Being responsible and following the law will assure that the event is a success and limit the number of arrests that are made.