Sheri Fisher, sophomore in pre-advertising, reached Welch Avenue near the beginning of Sunday morning’s riot. She immediately called her friend Meredith Keller, freshman in animal ecology.

“You gotta get here; it’s insane,” she told Keller.

Keller said the phone call enabled her to avoid the worst of the riot and to find her friends.

Fisher said she saw and heard many people on the phone telling their friends what was happening and telling them to come to the riots. She said others were trying to contact visiting friends to find each other and meet up.

Ames Police Cmdr. Jim Robinson said he thinks cell phones had an impact on the riot.

“I think it did contribute to the increase in the crowd size throughout the evening,” he said.

Fisher said she thought cell phones brought more people, but not more rioters. They were people who wanted to check things out, not people who wanted to be destructive, she said.

Keller said she went to check things out after receiving Fisher’s call for two reasons.

“Part of it was wanting to meet up with them to make sure they were OK,” she said.

The other part was a natural curiosity after hearing the screaming, she said. In the future when people argue about what happened, she can say she saw it for herself and knows what really occurred.

Robinson said the additional people encouraged the mob’s behavior.

“Some of the folks just came to witness, but in actuality they contributed to the acts,” he said.

Though cell phones may have had a negative impact, they also were a benefit in the confusion.

“That’s how we found each other and made sure everyone was OK,” Fisher said.

In all the turmoil many were separated from friends.

Keller said a man came up to her and asked to use a cell phone. He told her he was from out of town, and had been separated from his friends. He didn’t know how to find them or where to go. Keller allowed him to use her phone to contact the people he needed.

“This guy would have been completely lost without it,” she said.

Cameras and video cameras were two other forms of technology used to capture behavior at the riot. Fisher said she saw many people taking pictures and some of her friends took entire rolls of film.

Fisher said she has seen footage of the riot. A co-worker and some of his friends had approximately an hour’s worth of video from their balcony overlooking Welch Avenue.

Keller said although she didn’t personally see people videotaping or photographing the riot, she knows there were many cameras present because the photos and videos are available online.

Photos and videos are being used by the Ames Police Department to identify people who committed violent, illegal behavior as part of the riot. Robinson said there has been an excellent response from people contacting the police to identify people.

Robinson said the police will continue to ask anyone with photos, videos or the identity of someone in the photos posted on the ISU Department of Public Safety’s Web site to forward the information to the Ames Police.

Police have received complaints of police misconduct and would like to obtain photos or videos depicting such behavior, Robinson said.

“If in fact there are photos or videos that depict these actions, we would like be made aware of them,” he said.