Student Events, police work to make The Howl safe
Utah State University students entered treacherous waters when they attended The Howl, on Oct. 27—or did they?
“Years past, we’ve had numerous alcohol violations, whether it’s intoxication or underage drinking. But this year was relatively uneventful from the law enforcement side of things,” said USU Police Capt. Kent Harris. Harris and his team were stationed in the Fieldhouse during the event.
According to Harris, there was one physical altercation among the 5,300 students who attended the dance. The altercation has evolved into an ongoing investigation.
USUSA activities director Jamie Parry said a member of her committee was in the fieldhouse when she witnessed a man punch another attendee. As the committee member’s radio was not working at the time, she ran to the nearest staff member to report the incident.
The day after the dance, Oct. 28, USU Public Safety posted a picture taken by security cameras captioned, “Please help us identify this individual. If you have any relevant information, reach out to USU Police (435-797-1939).”
Spencer Bitner, director of involvement and adviser for student events, told The Utah Statesman in an email about the event’s added security measures.
“We install four additional security cameras in the dance so that we have a clear view of participants. This footage can be accessed after the event in the need of investigation,” Bitner wrote.
According to Bitner, additional lighting at the dance and the ban on face coverings are intentionally added to the dance planning, so individuals can be more easily identified.
The initial post has now been updated to inform the public the man has been identified.
“The community has a lot more eyes and ears than we do,” Harris said. “We really appreciate the community’s help.”
Harris and the USU Police arrested one other individual for underage drinking.
Parry conducts volunteer training in the week before the event as a preventative measure for the students. This event goes over crowd control and upstander training.
“We talk about how to not put yourself in a situation that is unsafe, but also stand up if you see something that’s going awry,” Parry said.
Another safety meeting with Parry’s team, volunteers and staff occurs right before the dance. In this meeting, they go over policy and procedures.
“We’re not very strict,” Parry said. “That’s probably why there’s only one underage drinking arrest is because we usually won’t have police interfere unless they’re causing an issue or it’s obvious that they’re intoxicated.”
“If [volunteers] see somebody that’s intoxicated, it’s truly not their job,” Harris said. “Their job is to attend the event. Our job is to attend to any potential problems.”
Harris advises any USU student who wishes to attend the event to come sober. When consuming drugs or alcohol, at times, people will do things they normally wouldn’t. According to Harris.
“At times, we will see people that don’t know what their alcohol tolerance is. And they will consume quite a bit of alcohol not realizing that it takes time for the body to absorb alcohol,” Harris said. “They may come to the event feeling pretty good, and as the night goes on, they become more and more intoxicated. It puts them and other people at risk.”
A hotline text service was implemented this year to help keep The Howl safer for all students. According to Parry, students used the number to inform USU Police of a disturbance.
The mobile tickets affected the safety of this year’s Howl, as well, according to Parry. Last year, 500 individuals were able to sneak into the dance, meaning about one in every 10 students were not supposed to be there.
“With fewer people, there’s less incidents,” Parry said.
This year, 5,700 tickets were sold, and 5,300 students attended. If an individual attempted to resell their ticket, Parry said the app was able to identify that student, and they were reported to the Office of Student Conduct.
“There is a big misconception that The Howl is a crazy party and that there’s a lot of risk,” Parry said. “But there are so many preventative measures that are taken into place to put students first. The Howl is a really safe event.”