Monday, March 7th 2011
Penn State’s World Campus | University Park, Pa.

Penn State Public Broadcasting’s third installment of the Geospatial Revolution Project deals with the technology in relation to privacy and how geospatial information affects law enforcement, war and diplomacy.

– As police departments around the country consolidate and face tough decisions on how best to use limited resources, geospatial technology has proven to be an asset. Geospatial technology allows law enforcement officials to identify crime hot spots in the communities they serve, so they can dedicate the necessary resources to these areas, thus maximizing efficiency.

Penn State Public Broadcasting’s four-part online video series, the Geospatial Revolution Project, explores the way geospatial information—such as geospatial information systems (GIS), global position systems (GPS), and digital mapping—enhances the lives of individuals as well as the efficiency of institutions like police departments. Episode Three of the series, available now, also focuses on safety, privacy and the use of geospatial technology in warfare and diplomacy.

“A surveillance society is not only inevitable and irreversible, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s irresistible—and it’s not government doing it to us, it’s us doing it to ourselves,” Jeff Jonas, member of the board of the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, said. “The more data that is available to us, the more transparent the world becomes.” (more…)

Cliff White and Wildamie Ceus
February 27, 2011
Centre Daily Times

STATE COLLEGE — Clad in green and blowing vuvuzelas, thousands of young people swarmed downtown State College on Saturday to celebrate State Patty’s Day, a student-created holiday centered on drinking.

Despite efforts by local officials to tamp down this year’s festivities, State College police Lt. Chris Fishel reported there were more people in town and more crime than last year’s event.

Police responded to more than 110 incidents in a 24-hour period through Saturday morning, about three times as many as a normal Friday night, Fishel said. During the entire State Patty’s Day weekend last year, State College police responded to about 365 calls related to the event, most of them alcohol-related.

Fights, false identification, and public urination and intoxication represented a majority of offenses committed by Saturday afternoon, Fishel said, adding that he expected the revelry to continue until about 4 a.m. today.

A spokeswoman for Mount Nittany Medical Center reported more than 40 people had been treated for alcohol-related injuries and conditions from 9 p.m. Thursday through 9 p.m. Saturday, some with severe injuries. (more…)

February 24, 2011

My name is Erik and I am a dean’s list student at Penn State. When I came to State College as a freshman, I knew I wanted to be involved in as much as I could. I was extremely involved in high school as a student leader, athlete and scholar. With my love for Penn State, I wanted to continue this over the next four years in Happy Valley.

Freshman year I accomplished everything I set out to. I studied hard, became involved in myriad activities, and assumed prominent leadership roles. Bleeding blue and white, I considered myself to be the consummate Penn Stater. Unfortunately this meant I also partied like a true Nittany Lion: hard and often.

Eventually my drinking landed me in the hospital from an alcohol overdose. Because that was my first time in the emergency room, I wrote it off as bad luck. I had not had a history of binge drinking in high school and wasn’t worried about my frequent drinking habits at Penn State. (more…)

By Jessica Tully and Christina Gallagher
December 7, 2010
Daily Collegian

State College attorney Andrew Shubin said Centre County police officers are too concerned with generating a high number of student arrests for low-level offenses at the University Park Undergraduate Association-sponsored town hall meeting Monday night.

“What the students don’t understand is that Penn State is not Pittsburgh or Philadelphia. State College is like Mississippi — the prosecutors, defense attorneys and jurors are very conservative,” Shubin said.

Shubin, a guest attorney at the meeting, said that if he was defending a client in a Philadelphia county, the first thing that he would tell the judge is that his client is a student at Penn State because it is highly recognized institution.

But he said if he were representing a student in Centre County, it would not matter that the student attended Penn State because his client’s background would be nearly identical to that of 40,000 other students.

Shubin said that it is important for students to realize that State College is a school zone, so low-level offenses, such as drinking and selling marijuana, are treated much more harshly. If his client lived in Philadelphia and was caught selling a quarter pound of marijuana, he would get a misdemeanor charge at the most, Shubin said. If his client was caught selling the illegal substance in State College, he would most likely receive a two to four year mandatory prison sentence.

“I hate that I am paying taxes to incarcerate engineering majors,” Shubin said. (more…)

Chad Lear - For the Centre Daily Times
Oct. 21, 2010

Alcohol offenses and thefts continue to be the biggest problems at Penn State, according to the university’s annual crime report.
“If you look at driving under the influence, liquor law and public drunkenness, those numbers are still high,” said Penn State Deputy Police Chief Tyrone Parham.
In 2009, those three offenses alone accounted for 783 of the 1,726 Part II offenses. Part II offenses also include drug offenses and weapons possession.
During the past three years, alcohol-related offenses have gone up, along with the blood alcohol content levels of Penn State students who have required medical attention for alcohol overdoses, Parham said. (more…)

by Sara Ganim
Centre Daily Times
October 13, 2010

STATE COLLEGE — Every Tuesday for the first 12 weeks of the fall semester, police officers and Penn State and borough officials meet to digest the weekend happenings in the four neighborhoods near campus where town-gown relations are often strained.

The group — dubbed First 8, or F8, when it started in the fall of 2007 — tries to get to student and non-student residents early in the academic year, giving them information about what’s expected of them when they live in State College.

“Data that we’ve looked at historically are that the largest number of issues that occur in the community occur during the first few weeks of the fall semester when classes start up and students return to campus, it tends to be a busier time,” said Borough Manager Tom Fountaine. (more…)

September 14, 2010
by Adam Smeltz for StateCollege.com

Leaders spanning the public and private sectors converged Monday in State College to endorse tougher penalties for underage-drinking and public-drunkenness offenses in Pennsylvania.

A two-hour hearing by the state Senate Majority Policy Committee convened inside the borough municipal building, drawing testimony from representatives of three college towns — including State College; from two Penn State student representatives; and from two bar-and-restaurant operators.

Nearly all of those testifying gave unqualified endorsements of three bills introduced last week by state Sen. Jake Corman, R-Bellefonte. One bill would raise the maximum fines for summary underage-drinking and public-drunkenness offenses to $1,000, up from the current maximum of $300. The current maximum was set in 1972 and no longer serves as an effective deterrent or covers law-enforcement expenses, officials testified. (more…)

By Katrina Wehr
Collegian Staff Writer

State College Borough Council President Ron Filipelli said he doesn’t leave his home after 10 p.m. and keeps his car inside to prevent damage from drunken passersby.

“It’s like living in two different neighborhoods,” said Filipelli, a longtime resident of the Highlands neighborhood. “One during the day, and a completely different one at night.”

And in an effort to deter students from engaging in the excessive behavior that can result from alcohol abuse, Filipelli — along with state senators, borough officials and community members — met Monday afternoon to discuss legislation that would raise fines for alcohol-related offenses. The legislation aims to raise the maximum fine for alcohol-related summary offenses to $1,000. (more…)

In taking leadership stand, we must welcome students
Elizabeth Goreham

From its beginning State College has been a college town welcoming students and embracing their traditions. That is why our fraternity district was built within a neighborhood where professors and their families lived, frequently with student tenants. Our downtown grew naturally across the street from Penn State.

Over time the increase of students outpaced the population of the town and now students outnumber permanent residents. This makes the once easy connection with students more difficult, sometimes impossible. Still, just about everybody who lives here has a proud connection to Penn State.

Student life commonly includes drinking. In the past few years, however, dangerous drinking has accelerated. Issues related to alcohol abuse threaten the high standard of living neighborhoods have traditionally enjoyed.
(more…)

Proposed act unconstitutional, group says
Mike Joseph
STATE COLLEGE — A proposed borough ordinance to curb the impact of rowdy parties by holding hosts responsible for the illegal activities of guests has come under fire from a national organization that advocates individual rights.

The American Civil Liberties Union told State College in a letter Friday that the borough’s proposed “nuisance gathering ordinance,” which is scheduled for a public hearing Monday night, violates the U.S. Constitution.

(more…)