The Integrity Report on the Arizona State University Police Department

PHOENIX (KSAZ) – As federal investigators are looking into how ASU handles sexual violence and misconduct complaints, some students claim the university is turning a blind eye to a culture of sexual misconduct at the Barrett Honors College.

The students say the problem goes beyond a couple professors sleeping with students. They go so far as to say it’s a way of life within the college, where faculty flirts, dates, gropes, and has sex with students without consequence.

One group is trying to change that they started a petition asking the university to fire the teachers who do this. That petition has received a lot of support so far with nearly a thousand students have already signed it.

Jasmine Lester founded the group Sun Devils Against Sexual Assault, she says professors continually get away with taking advantage of their students sexually.

She says her professor took advantage of her during a study abroad trip.

“She would go out drinking with all the students getting me drunk holding me up feeling me up,’ said Lester.

Lester launched the petition to put a stop to what she calls the rape culture at Barrett. Since then, more than 900 have signed it, and many women have come forward with their own stories.

She describes a situation one of her peers encountered. “she and her professor were in a relationship while she was a student in his class that’s where the power dynamic comes in he had control over her grades letters of recommendation scholarship letters etc.,” said Lester.

The woman told FOX 10 via email that “she felt like she owed him sexual favors in exchange for things like letters of recommendation and extensions on class assignments”.

That professor no longer teaches at ASU; he left suddenly, in the middle of the semester after the woman says she filed a sexual abuse complaint.

But in the end the students say their complaints are not taken seriously by administrators and in some cases even discouraged.

“She said when we think of sexual harassment were thinking more shove you up against the wall kind of thing because a lot of what I’ve been describing was emotional harassment that shed been putting me thru,” she said.

Lester says she wants professors to be held accountable and administrators to educate students about the different forms of sexual abuse.

“They don’t say this is what consent is and this how power can compromise that and just so you know your professors might behave inappropriately with you its not just frat boys its also people in positions of power,” said Lester.

We asked ASU to address these specific claims, they would not. The university did issue a statement: “Arizona State University is a community where sexual misconduct is not tolerated. The university has policies and procedures in place to handle such matters. We take all sexual misconduct complaints very seriously, thoroughly investigate them and deliver swift and appropriate punishment if violations are found”.

The group, Sun Devils Against Sexual Assault is preparing to file a half dozen more complaints about sexually abusive professors with the university.

Another decent ASUPD employee left the department today, which has been a routine occurrence in light of the ongoing staffing crisis transpiring at the department.

The Commander over the Tempe Campus, K. Williams left ASUPD today with only two days notice (presumably for greener pastures). Commander Williams was a seasoned 20 year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department, and managed to survive ASUPD for only four years! This should speak volumes about the type of toxic work environment that exists throughout the department…even amongst members of Command staff!

Best of luck in your new ventures, Williams. We hope you go to a department that appreciates your experience and education.

 On 04-03-14, ASUPD botched yet another major call–this time a potentially missing international ASU student.

The student was last seen on the ASU Tempe campus, and this time it’s the job of ASUPD to search for and locate this student instead of the Tempe Police Department. The student’s apartment was filled with personal items someone typically wouldn’t leave behind if they were going somewhere–credit cards, money, purse, phone, and items that would have been of evidentiary value if a crime was involved. Due to this student’s status as an international student,  there were not many local contacts available to interview for further information. Additionally, the student’s Facebook and email was being used by someone admitting to be a third party and leaving cryptic messages about the status of the student without giving a location

The direct supervisor of detectives, ASUPD Sergeant Lewis was under the impression a crime had to already be committed to apply for a search warrant in this missing person case. Over the next five days this must have been believed to be true by the commander, assistant chief, and chief closely following this case and overseeing its lack of progress. All the ASUPD Commanders (who are hardly ever at their respective campuses) were running around the Tempe station in a panic, clueless about how to proceed.

What was ASUPD’s solution to finding this missing female student over the next five days? Have patrol Sergeant Macias and Detective Bryner knock on the door of the residence on three separate occasions with negative contact. A brief interview was done with the boyfriend (usually a person of interest in missing persons cases), but nothing was discovered. There was NO extensive search of the jails or hospitals, and no search warrants issued for her residence, phone, email…nothing! After five days with no leads, the case looked increasingly bleak. Instead of searching for more information, ASUPD stopped looking for more leads in this case.

As this investigation grinded to a halt, Chief Pickens (clueless has how to proceed), delegated the responsibility for handling the situation to his two assistant chiefs.  Assistant Chief Hardina reacted with a typical ASUPD response: let’s not enter it into NCIC…let’s give it to Tempe PD! His counterpart, Assistant Chief Thompson (with experience from a legitimate police agency) decided to enter it into NCIC and work the case like a responsible, capable, police department would. There was an internal debate raging on the third floor; should ASUPD continue to work this stagnant missing persons case, or should ASUPD hand it over to Tempe (where the student resided)? This was a last ditch attempt to avoid any more negative press about ASU.

When Tempe PD was notified of the missing person case (and how ASUPD failed to make any headway in the case), they immediately demanded a meeting with ASUPD’s Command Staff. Commander Michele Rourke was given the task of meeting Tempe PD to answer for ASUPD’s incompetence. However, at the last minute, a search of the local jails was done and the student was located; the meeting with Tempe PD was subsequently canceled.

This is further proof that ASUPD is incapable of handling a major incident on campus, due solely to incompetent leadership and an understaffed (and undertrained!) police department.

From the Phoenix New Times Blog:

Of the 10 most-dangerous suburbs in America, two of them are suburbs of Phoenix.

That’s according to the real estate website Movoto, which ranked Glendale as the seventh-most dangerous, and Tempe the eighth-most, based on FBI crime data.

The people who put the ranking together took into account murders, other violent crimes, property crimes, and total crimes, all per 100,000 people, to compare the suburbs to one another.

In Glendale, there were 6,410 property crimes per 100,000 people in 2012, the worst of any suburb. Total crime, at 6,901 per 100,000 was the sixth-highest. Glendale also ranked 18th for murders, and 18th for other violent crimes.

The odds of being a victim of a crime in Glendale in 2012 were 1 in 14.

Meanwhile, Tempe ranked 14th for property crimes and 12th for total crime.

The violent crimes are what put Tempe on the list: with seven murders per 100,000 people, the 11th-most, and 519 other violent crimes per 100,000 people, ranking 16th.

That put your odds of being a crime victim in Tempe 1 in 19 in 2012.

The six most-dangerous suburbs, beating out Glendale and Tempe, were East Point, Georgia; Camden, New Jersey; Miami Beach, Florida; Midwest City, Oklahoma; Miami Gardens, Florida; and Clarksville, Indiana.

We’re speculating the high property crime rate stems from ASU’s Tempe campus, which reported nearly 1,000 theft related crimes from it’s 2012 Clery Report. Violent crimes statistics on ASU’s Tempe Campus (forcible sex offenses, robbery, and burglary) also showed significant increases in 2012, as compared to the previous year.