Ames, ISU Police added more officers on day shift for 8:01

Hannah Olson / Iowa State Daily

Students tailgate in the lot of the Haunted Forest on Saturday morning in preparation for the Cyclones vs. San Jose Spartans football game. 

Isd Staff
August 21, 2017

The Iowa State and Ames police departments increased their day shift officers this year in preparation of the Saturday before the start of the fall semester, unofficially recognized as 8:01.

Iowa State Police Deputy Chief Darin Van Ryswyk said their department added four more officers on day shifts this year compared to last year in which they did not increase staffing. 

The Ames Police Department also added more day shift officer to break up the day parties. Compared to having six or seven officers on duty last year, there were a total of 13 officers on duty Saturday, Commander Geoff Huff of the Ames PD said. 

The Ames PD had their first complaint of loud noise at 6:32 a.m. The next was just an hour later. 

A stronger, yet light-hearted, presence

Taking to social media, both the Iowa State and Ames Police Department made their presence known, but encouraged safety as a No. 1 priority.

Over the past five years, the number of arrests have decreased on 8:01, and the calls for service have increased. Calls for service could mean warnings issued, outreach or number of SafeRide calls. 

On Aug. 18, 2012, which was that year’s Saturday before classes, ISU PD had 63 calls for service and issued 12 reports. Of those 12 reports, nine were alcohol related. Nine people were arrested, a number that jumped to 25 on Aug. 24, 2013, the Saturday before classes of that year, and down to four on Aug. 19, 2017 – the most recent 8:01 day. 

The number of alcohol-related reports on the Saturday before classes has also jumped around over the years as well, going from 18 in 2013 to 10 in 2014, 6 in 2015 and back to 10 in 2016. 

ISU PD was unable to confirm the number of alcohol-related reports this past Saturday, as not all of the 16 reports filed have been through the approval process. 

For 8:01 this year, ISU PD alone responded to 115 calls for service – a number that has almost doubled from 2016 where ISU PD responded to 60 calls. In 2013, ISU PD responded to 111 calls for service on 8:01. 

The Ames PD made their first arrest at 10:50 a.m. after finding a man passed out in a yard. From 6 a.m. Saturday to 6 a.m. Sunday, the Ames PD made 10 arrests attributed to 8:01 day, compared to four made last year. 

One man who locked himself in someone else’s apartment thinking he lived there was later arrested for public intoxication.

Huff said the officers think the tradition is “kind of embarrassing.”

“I don’t think that’s the kind of culture we want here,” Huff said. “And I don’t think that’s how we want to represent ourselves.”

Huff said the Ames police try to avoid arresting people as much as they can. If they can find someone responsible to get an intoxicated individual home safe without being destructive, they will let them go. 

“If we’re arresting people, there’s really nothing else we can do with them,” Huff said. “They are just too drunk to be out.” 

“You can be drunk. You can be stupid, but you can’t be both.” 

Collegiate Panhellenic changes ban 

8:01 was an unofficial day the Saturday after sorority formal recruitment when the alcohol ban was lifted off of sorority members at 8 a.m.

“We don’t really like to refer to it as 8:01 since that is no longer a ban so we refer to it as the Saturday before school starts, because it really has no significance to our recruitment week anymore,” said Kara Rex, senior in agriculture and society and president of Collegiate Panhellenic Council. 

During the fall of 2016, Collegiate Panhellenic voted to lift the time restriction from the ban. By national sorority regulations, sororities are still not allowed to drink during specific recruitment events. 

“Our decision to lift the alcohol ban [time] was to shift the accountability to each chapter individually rather than being governed by or regulated by our entire council,” Rex said.  

This allowed each chapter to decide if they wanted their ban to only last during events of the individual days or during the entire week. If the alcohol ban was the entire week, the chapter decided when the ban would be lifted at the end of recruitment activities. 

“We felt like it had a positive impact on our community this year as some chapters didn’t have a ban while others lifted it after a sisterhood activity,” Rex said. “It was nice for chapters to see what fit them instead of a one size fits all rule for our entire community.”