The Whistle Stop Program is a community safety program created to help fight crime on the streets.

Niki Sipes, an Ames Police Department officer, uses the Whistle Stop Program to educate Iowa State sororities and fraternities, as well as off-campus groups, about safety.

“I talk to groups about being safe,” Sipes said. “Women are arming themselves with things that can be used against them. If you use a whistle, you are going to draw a lot of attention to yourself. If the attacker takes the whistle away from you, what can he do with it?”

Sipes also talks to groups about alcohol and the correlation between alcohol abuse and sexual assault.

“When I get to go talk to them about the different things that have been of concern to them, it’s in a manner that’s non-threatening,” she said. “I talk about theft prevention, noise violation and sexual assault. I discuss the correlation between alcohol and sexual assault, because when people get intoxicated, issues of consent can become really iffy.”

This leads to a discussion about Rohypnol, the date rape drug, she said.

“It is a little pill, goes into one’s drink, and it can put the drinker out. It has an amnesia-like effect, leaving someone with total lack of remembrance of what led up to the moment at which it was taken,” Sipes said.

After hearing the presentation, Allison Belmore, a junior in journalism and standard chair of Delta Zeta sorority, said many female ISU students do not really know what can happen to them because of Rohypnol.

“At a party, no one would be able to tell if you were under the influence of alcohol or on Rohypnol. At the peak stage of having taken Rohypnol, you don’t have control over your arms and legs,” she said.

“I think that the presentation is very informative and good for the women on campus to hear,” Belmore said. “A lot of things happen to women our age that we don’t hear about, and we don’t really know what to be aware of.”

Officer Taunya Short of the Ames Police Department also gave the Whistle Stop Program and the alcohol presentation at Delta Zeta thumbs-up reviews.