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October 16, 1987___University of Nebraska-Lincoln_ Vol. 87 No. 37
Police investigated after complaints
By CJnr^tfftk Allerheiligen
Staffft*wk,f u
An investigation into complaints
from members of the UNL Police
Department, including an accidental
firing of a weapon, has led to recom
mendations in policy changes for the
department.
The Nebraska Office of the Public
Counsel/Ombudsman submitted the
investigation report and recommen
dations to John Goebel, vice chancel
lor of business and finance, earlier this
semester.
Ombudsman Marshall Lux said he
was pleased with the response he re
ceived from Goebel and said commu
nication would continue.
Assistant Ombudsman Terry Ford
said university officials will take ac
tion but it will not be drastic.
According to an investigation by
the UNL Police Department that was
submitted to the ombudsman’s office,
UNL police officer Gary Hoffman
accidentally fired into the ceiling of
the UNL police department’s dispatch
room on July 17.
Hoffman told the investigating
officer that he checked his weapon to
see if it needed cleaning and found it
loaded. He then closed the cylinder
and raised the weapon straight up at
about ear level.
He told the investigator he be
lieved his finger was on the trigger and
he may have clenched his fist while
putting the weapon into his holster.
When asked by the investigator if
he had ever seen anyone in the depart
ment handle a weapon carelessly,
Hoffman said, “No comment.” Ac
cording to the report, Hoffman said he
See related story
on page 3
had obviously mishandled his gun or
there wouldn’t have been a hole in the
ceiling of the dispatch room.
According to the ombudsman’s
report, the department didn’t begin a
thorough investigation of the matter
until about five days after the acci
dent.
The ombudsman’s office recom
mended that the existing policy on
weapons discharge be consistently
implemented by department adminis
trators whenever a firearm is dis
charged, whether or not an injury
results. This included requirements
for a prompt investigation and a re
view board to examine the circum
stances surrounding a discharge.
The main concern is established
administrative procedure, which
should have been used in this case, the
report said. Ombudsman office offi
cials said it appeared that the proce
dure either was not followed or was
implemented late — after the interest
of the ombudsman’s office was made
known to UNL Police Chief Gail
Gade.
Goebel was out of town Thursday
and unavailable for comment on the
report
However, in a reply to the
ombudsman’s office in early October,
Goebel said, “As the report indicates,
there is always room for fine-tuning a
public department and the ideas and
recommendation presented in your
report will help us with these needed
adjustments.”
The accidental discharge of the
weapon needs to be examined from a
university perspective, he wrote. Dif
ferent intents and situations in which
a weapon is fired warrant different
levels of concern and action, Goebel
said. He said the university intends to
research this area.
Gade would not comment on the
report Thursday, but said information
would be released from Goebel’s of
fice next week.
The investigation of the UNL Po
lice Department began after a June 11
meeting of several members of the
UNL Police Department and repre
sentatives of the ombudsman’s office.
The report, subm itted by Lux, Ford
and ombudsman intern Jeff Canon,
said the concerned officers thought
that because the department was ap
parently restructured about every nine
months, some ordinary grievances
expanded to critical proportions.
The report said the officers con
cluded that any police department that
must restructure so frequently must be
disorganized and lackadaisical.
The officers reported an alleged
misuse of a state vehicle by a junior
officer assigned to train at the Ne
braska Law Enforcement Training
Center in Grand Island. The officer
allegedly used a state vehicle to par
ticipate in a pool tournament. UNL
police Lt. Ken Cauble knew about the
incident but did not discipline the
officer suitably, the officers said.
After investigation of the incident
and similar alleged misuses of state
vehicles, the report recommends that
persons who are allowed to use uni
versity vehicles for extended out-of
town assignments be instructed on the
policy guidelines.
The ombudsman’s office also re
ceived complaints about possible
deficiencies in Cauble’s training re
quirements for certification, stem
ming from his transfer from the Lin
coln Police Department to the UNL
Police Department.
The Nebraska Comm ission on Law
Enforcement and Criminal Justice
ruled at its August meeting that
Cauble will be required to take a test
if he is to be recognized as a certified
law enforcement officer.
Members of the UNL Police De
partment reported falsification of sta
tistics kept for foot patrol duties and a
lack of foot patrol in areas of campus
more prone to crime.
After investigating this complaint,
ombudsman’s investigators found
responses that differed from the re
ports they received. Gade and Cauble
said records on foot patrol were not
kept. Gade told investigators these
records could only be retrieved from
shift supervisors.
The report said that to have an
effective foot patrol, the department
must monitor the actual time officers
spend on foot. Such data could easily
be tabulated from existing records, the
report said.
In a letter to the ombudsman,
Goebel said the recommendations for
foot patrol were sound in concept.
But, he added, the goal for the amount
of time spent by officers on foot patrol
See POLICEon6
Lincoln UFO-busters
watch Nebraska sky
r# n i lit#
1 ■ rSTp^
By James M. Lillis
Senior Reporter
When unidentified flying ob
jects are sighted in Nebraska, you
can bet the Fortean Research Cen
ter of Lincoln will look into it
Scott Colbom, associate direc
tor of the research team, said if
people think they have seen a UFO
in the Midwest, chances are they’re
not alone.
“There have been documented
UFO sightings in Nebraska since
the cowboy days,” Colbom said.
The center, founded in Febuary
1986, takes its name from Charles
Fort, an early 20th-century writer
who spent years collecting and
publishing information about all
sorts of unexplained phenomena
found all over the world.
“We’re one of a couple of re
search groups to take its name from
Fort," Colbom said.
The Fortean research team in
cludes Colbom, whose major inter
est is UFOs; Dale Bacon, who re
searches ghosts and other appari
tion sightings; and Ray Boeche,
director of the group, whose inter
ests include the above areas and
“bipedal humanoid” (Bigfoot)
sightings.
According to the Fortean Re
search Center Journal, the group
also investigates all aspects of
“crypto/oological mysteries, out
of- place animal sightings, geologi
cal and archeological anomalies,
psychic phenomena, and all other
areas of study which may provide
data useful to the resolution of
these perplexing mysteries.”
Documents of unexplained
phenomena can be found tn local
police and sheriff reports, state and
county historical societies, and
newspaper clippings, Colbom
said.
Colbom, who has seen a UFO,
said southeast Nebraska, in par
ticular, has had many UFO sight
ings.
Some of these sightings have
been published by the Fortean
Journal, but the names of those
involved have been changed.
There is a good reason for this,
Colbom said.
“When the (University of Ne
braska-Lincoln’s) Raymond Hall
ghost was sighted, the papers pub
lished (a) name of the man who saw
it, and soon he got so many calls
about the sighting that he now re
fuses to speak to anyone about it,”
Colborn said.
A typical UFO experience pub
lished by the research team in the
Fortean Research Journal may re
late sightings, communication
with the UFOs and even abduc
tions.
“Abduction cases are rapidly
becoming standard fare in UFOI
ogy,” Colbom said. “The abduc
tion of an individual or individuals
and the subsequent ‘medical ex
amination’ which have been re
lated on countless limes arc famil
iar to most researchers. However,
we may have a new twist to add to
the story.”
In 1984, a Lincoln woman
called “Joan” talked to Bocchc and
Colbom about a recurring dream
she had had since childhood. In this
dream, an entity appears outside
her bedroom window and attempts
to coax her to come with him.
On April 11, 1984, Joan was
hypnotically regressed to when the
Brian Barbar/Daliy Nebraskan
dream first occurred. The team
discovered the date was Oct. 7,
1955, when Joan was 12 years old.
Bocchc and Colborn observed as
she told about her dream.
“This entity conducts Joan to a
‘craft’ which is resting on the
ground in a large vacant lot next to
her home. After entering, she is
given the well-known medical
exam described by others (sam
pling of skin tissue, blood, hair,
etc.) and is returned to her home,’’
Boeche wrote.
The unusual part was that she
said she was able to understand
what the leader was telling his
subordinates. The new dimension
enters here.
“According to Joan’s testimony
under hypnosis, the subordinates
were quite worried about being
caught, that they shouldn’t take
chances and endanger them
selves,” Bocchc wrote.
Boechc said Joan spoke with the
leader before he took her back to
her home.
Colbom said he saw a UFO in
Lincoln in August 1974.
“My father and I were sitting on
the patio of his house,” Colbom
said. “We saw a round silvery
sphere about 500 feet off the
ground. That's when I first got
seriously interested in UFOs.”
Readers who want to read more
about UFOs and other unexplained
phenomena can pick up copies of
the Fortean Research Center Jour
nal at The Way Home Records &
Books,4203 S. 48th St. People who
want to give tips on UFOs or sub
scribe to the Fortean Journal can
contact the Fortean Research Cen
ter.
Class clarifies
nuclear ideas
By Amy Edwards
Senior Reporter
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
students can learn the causes and
realities of nuclear threat in a new
sociology course next semester.
Robert Benford, assistant profes
sor of sociology, said The Sociology
of Nuclear Threat will discuss nu
clear issues from a variety of perspec
tives.
While it may seem early to be
thinking about courses next semester,
UNL’s class schedule for next semes
ter is already available, and students
can hand in their schedules beginning
Monday.
Benford, who designed a similar
course on nuclear issues at the Uni
versity of Texas-Arlington, said there
are several reasons he thinks the
course should be taught.
“Sociologists, with few excep
tions, have tended to disregard what is
perhaps the most perplexing and larg
est social problem of our era,” Ben
ford said.
The course will offer much infor
mation. Benford said students need to
be well-informed of all aspects of the
nuclear debate before they can make
their own decisions.
Information is often filtered
through the media, he said. The
course is designed to show the effects
of a nuclear society through histori
cal, political and anthropological
viewpoints, as well as a sociological
one.
To help show these perspectives,
Benford wants to bring in speakers
from the military and peace move
ment groups to stimulate discussion
in the classroom.
Because the new class has not been
approved as a permanent course, it
will be a Special Topics course with
no prerequisites. Benford said he
hopes to get a cross-section of people
in the course with a variety of ap
proaches toward nuclear society.