Officer Craig Preston patrols on campus.
The student’s hasty denial fell on deaf ears. The ground gave it away and the student had just been caught urinating on the roadside by Moscow police officer James Fry.
Urination in public is not a sex offense in Idaho, but it can still win an embarrassing ride to the police station.
“I’ll make a deal with you,” Officer Fry said. “If your zipper is unzipped, you go to jail. If it’s not, you don’t.”
Mulling over Fry’s ultimatum, the student broke the silence.
“He said, ‘Alright, I was urinating. You got me,” Fry said. “We both cracked a laugh, and I didn’t even give him a citation for it.”
Fry, who is now the Moscow Department’s Chief of Police, recalls moments like this with a grain of salt.
“I think what you have to remember — especially with students — is they are just people and they make mistakes,” Fry said. “You need to have a sense of humor. Sometimes it’s okay to laugh about things that happen.”
The Moscow Police Department (MPD) exercises “officer discretion,” meaning officers have the independent authority to decide whether or not to cite someone. Fry said the MPD entrenches its everyday policing with the value of learning. Before resorting to enforcement tactics, educational tools are used to improve behavior and decision-making skills.
Corporal Casey Green, who is stationed full-time on the MPD campus division, devotes much of his time to building student relationships and bridging the gap between information students do not know.
“Law enforcement typically is responsive-type agency,” Green said. “We don’t get in front of things very easily, and when we have the opportunity to talk about things before they happen, that’s a refreshing perspective in my field.”
Green keeps an open dialogue with students by delivering “Cop Talks” for University of Idaho campus groups like Greek Life and Residence Halls among other student organizations. During Cop Talks, students can unreservedly ask Green about their rights, Idaho laws and policing procedures. Drinking hypotheticals are a popular topic, ranging from “What happens if I lie about my age” to “What kind of inebriated behavior catches your attention?”
Green said he stays alert for obvious and concerning behavior, like vomiting, staggering or falling. Other indicators include large groups moving between different locations, backpacks and purses three times their normal size, people inappropriately dressed for weather and a multitude of other actions.
Green said it is common for officers with the MPD to socially engage with students, meaning an officer could approach a student for no reason at all. However, Green said students can always ask if they are OK to leave. The officer should say yes or no. However, police can hold a person up to 15 minutes if they are suspicious of a crime or are investigating an alleged crime.
If an officer asks to check inside a bag, the owner can say “no.” But, the officer can bypass it if they witness a bottleneck sticking out or hear a jug splashing around, Green said. Open container violations are a misdemeanor, a criminal offense.
Green said an easy way to short-circuit a holdup with the police is to always carry personal identification, regardless of age. The MPD aims to delay people no longer than necessary, but if a drunk individual is potentially underage, he said they will waste time and effort searching through the state system and other resources. Whether someone provides honest identification or is booked in a jail cell under John or Jane Doe, the truth is ineludible.
“If they lie to me and tell me not whom they are, they’ve taken what would be an infraction — no different than a speeding ticket — and compounded it into a criminal offense of resisting and obstructing,” Green said.
When poor decisions are made, honesty can be a wrongdoer’s best friend, he said.
Fourth-year UI student Cory Cornett tasted its influence when he stole a large, luminescent construction sign that read, “Road Work Ahead,” in front of Gritman Medical Center. Not a conspicuous task — MPD flashlights shined into his living room as soon as the improvised trophy hit the floor.
When asked why he stole the sign, Cornett said he replied with an honest answer explaining his level of intoxication.
That honesty dodged him a night in jail. The officers thanked Cornett for cooperating and gave him a misdemeanor for petty theft instead, which Cornett said he dismissed by attending an alcohol abuse and DUI education class.
A common misconception about the MPD is the motive behind writing citations, which can ignite apprehension when police linger after parties while people are leaving. Are they waiting to dish out MICs? In most cases, the answer is no.
The department does not have a quota for writing citations — from speeding to minor in consumption tickets — officers have little incentive to distribute them without purpose.
“Our officers are paid to be police officers, not to write tickets,” Fry said. “That’s why we push the education piece so much. It’s not based on a ticket test, it’s about people learning and changing behavior.”
Officer Craig Preston talks to students Zach Waite and Garrett Kovaleski between their classes.
Lingering behavior is usually ensuring people leave safely, Fry said. The MPD regularly drives people home who are intoxicated, need a ride or get lost by making wrong turns.
In 2013, Fry handled the case of Joseph Wiederrick, the 18-year-old UI student who wandered across Moscow after a fraternity party and froze to death under a bridge. Fry and the MPD strive to prevent such tragedies through due diligence, education and legislation like medical amnesty.
Because of ASUI lobbyists like Clayton King, medical amnesty is a permanently established Idaho law protecting underage individuals from legal persecution or infractions if they reach out for help in case of an alcohol-related emergency.
“(Medical amnesty) is commonly called the good Samaritan law,” King said. “You have to kind of stick your neck out there to receive any kind of protection.”
The law strictly protects the person who needs help and the one who calls or approaches law enforcement, so officers advise everyone else under 21 to disperse.
“One success where somebody is alive, I feel like it’s working,” Fry said.
Fry said because the MPD has the privilege to help people in their worst times, they must have pre-established trust in the community and with students. Cop Talks, sparking arbitrary conversations, grabbing coffee — these efforts by officers like Fry and Green help make the MPD more approachable, so students can call them in confidence knowing they will do the right thing.
“I know we are intimidating,” Fry said. “I know this uniform is intimidating. Any time I can break down the barriers, people go, ‘Man they’re just people that are doing a job to protect us,’ then that’s a win.”