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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 22, 1998)
SPORTS Rivalry renewed After an overtime thriller last season, Nebraska and Missouri seem set to renew a rivalry filled with close football games and big moments. PAGE 7 A & I Opening eyes The Return of the Gay/Lesbian Film Festival opens ^ today at the Ross Theater, featuring the Nebraska premiere of “The Brandon Teena Story." PAGE 12 THURS »AY October 22, 1998 Loud and Clear Sunny, high 68. Clear tonight, low 40. VOL. 98 COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 NO. 42 Police to focus on downtown, campus areas By Josh Fink Senior staff writer The Lincoln Police Department is reor ganizing in hopes of better serving the com munity. In January, a team of officers will con centrate on just the area around the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's City Campus and downtown. Currently Lincoln police divide the city into four different team areas. A fifth team area will be carv ed out around the center of the capital city. “We hope the new. smaller areas will allow us to focus on what we have and become more familiar with the area.” Northeast Team Capt. Doug Srb said.. Each team is led by a police captain and has 35 to 40 officers assigned to it, said Joy Citta, Northwest/Center Team Capt. The fifth team will be the center team, covering an area from Leighton Avenue to G Street and Fifth Street to 33rd Street. Citta will lead the new center team, and each of the four other teams, northwest, northeast, southeast and southwest, will become slightly smaller geographically. Personnel in the new teams w ill be shuffled so each employs 34 to 36. The growth of the city and the police force allow's police to create the new team, Citta said. The new teams will cut down on officer travel time and help police better address the problems in each area of the city, Citta said. Team captains try to tailor some of their special enforcement projects to their area of the city. For example, the northwest/center team has a bicycle patrol to help officers negotiate downtown traffic and its targeted party and alcohol enforcement. With a smaller geographic area, police should be able to better direct their enforce ment efforts, Citta and Srb said. One of the faults of the current team division is that some neighborhoods are split by the boundaries, which makes it dif ficult for police to uniformly address enforcement concerns in those neighbor hoods, Citta said. The new division lines are drawn around neighborhoods to keep them intact. There is also historical precedence for the center team. When LPD switched to team policing in the late 1970s under Chief George Hansen, there were five teams. The center team was eliminated a few years later because of a disparity of service calls across the city. Its resurrection will help ensure a better distribution of service calls and officers citywide, Citta said. Though most other police forces across the nation have switched back to a three shift system of policing, Lincoln Police has stuck with the team system, Citta said. In the shift system, officers are not assigned to the same area of the city, which prevents them from getting familiar with a neighborhood and its problems. Citta said. The team system helps police become familiar with their communities, she said. "We have a long history of working w ith the community.'' Sandy Summers/DN NEBRASKA WESLEYAN STUDENTS Devon Denn and Josh Young sing at the annual Take Back the Night candlelight vigil Wednesday night at the State Capitol. The vigil was held in remembrance of women who are victims of violence, domestic abuse and other sexist crimes. X Victims’ voices heard at vigil 6i There are people in the audience who have heard the cry of their neighbor and have done nothing JoAnna Koba Svoboda Lincoln Police Department’s witness unit By Kim Sweet Staff writer Echoes of chants such as "yes means yes and no means no” echoed through the streets near the Capitol on Wednesday night. More than 100 people marched from the Nebraska Union to the Capitol to raise aware ness against domestic violence as well as hate crimes in Lincoln in the annual Take Back the Night candlelight vigil. Marchers broke open their glow sticks to light up the Capitol steps amid the serene October night. They were reminded of the vio lence that takes place on even the most peaceful nights as Kathy Campbell, a Lancaster County commissioner, read the statistics of those who fled abusive relationships in 1997. Last year, there were 16 percent more requests for shelter and 17 percent more requests for protection orders in Lancaster County than during the previous year. Campbell said. The waiting list for clients needing to stay in the Friendship Home, a rape abuse crisis center for women and their children, has tripled over the past five years, Campbell said. Please see VIGIL on 3 Lid opponents call for ‘Blue to MU’ ByIevaAugstums Staff writer Student government leaders are asking UNL students and fans to show their Cornhusker spirit by wearing blue Saturday when the Huskers play Missouri. As a stance against Initiative 413, student organizations, including the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska. Students Against the Lid and the ASUN Government Liaison Committee, are asking Husker fans to wear blue, instead of red to show their opposition to the proposed tax lid amendment. “We need the university, city and state to do this,” said Angie Klein, ASUN Government Liaison Committee chairwoman. “Saturday is a great opportunity to make a state ment.” The proposed tax lid amendment to the Nebraska Constitution, if passed Nov. 3, would cut S20 million from the University of Nebraska budget, according to university budget esti mates. “We're not your t\ p 1 ca 1 lazy col lege students." ASUN President Sara Russell said. “We really do care. We want to make a difference.” The “Blue to MU” protest would show how blue the university would be if Initiative 413 passed, Russell said. If the amendment passes, tuition could increase up to 22 percent; acad emic programming, including entire courses of study, would be eliminated; and faculty members and staff would face up to a 6 percent salary cut, she said. “The effects of this initiative are monstrous." Russell said. “That's why we need everyone's support " Klein said Students Against the Lid has asked NU athletic teams and student organizations for support. Beth Kuchta. adviser for the Student Athlete Advisory Board, said Klein and ASUN First Vice President Kelly Hoffschneider proposed that NU athletic teams wear blue on Saturday. Most NU athletic teams are will ing to wear the color blue in some manner. However, as a political state ment, wearing blue must be done on an individual volunteer basis, Kuchta said. Kuchta said board members understand organizations are not pro moting anti-school spirit by asking the Please see BLUE on 3 Read the Daily Nebraskan on the World Wide Web at http: u ww.unl.edu iDailyNeb