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
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