Extending amnesty

Moscow police consider adopting an amnesty policy

It’s a crisis situation — an underage student has alcohol poisoning and needs medical attention immediately. Instead of seeking help, however, the thoughts of the student or the friends around them may be more focused on the consequences to follow, rather than the emergency at hand.

This is a situation ASUI is trying to prevent.

Currently, if a University of Idaho student finds himself or herself in a similar situation, the UI Amnesty Policy adopted into the Student Code of Conduct last year ensures UI will not take disciplinary action against the involved students. The Moscow Police Department is considering the adoption of an amnesty policy to protect students from legal repercussions if they seek help in life-threatening situations.

Nicholas Wren, ASUI director of health and wellness, said ASUI is in the process of communicating with MPD to see whether or not a similar amnesty policy would be a viable option.

“It’s really going to depend on senate, if they want to write a resolution, if they want to try and convince the Moscow Police Department to adopt this policy too,” Wren said. “We’ll see what happens.”

MDP Lt. David Lehmitz said the department is discussing the option internally and cannot yet comment on the possibility of an amnesty policy.

“We haven’t made a decision on the amnesty policy, but we are going to be looking at it more closely in the coming weeks,” he said.

While UI has off-campus jurisdiction, the UI Amnesty Policy states that a student who seeks emergency medical attention for drug or alcohol related consumption would not be reprimanded for violating the Student Code of Conduct. ASUI began the discussion with MPD regarding ways the MPD could encourage students to seek medical attention for themselves or another person without the threat of legal action.

Wren said a similar request was considered by MPD previously, but a decision was made to not move forward with it.

“This is a conversation that we’ve had with the Dean of Students Office before, but we really started talking about it earlier this summer (of 2014), along with the Alcohol Taskforce,” Lehmitz said.

Wren said ASUI is reopening the conversation and thinks a MPD amnesty policy would be a positive thing for students because it would increase their safety by promoting responsibility.

“It would be a pity if someone wound up hurt or injured because their friend didn’t want to call 911, because they were worried that they were going to get in trouble,” he said.

Wren said he is curious to see the perspective of the police department as the conversation develops. An officer of MPD will address the ASUI Senate during a pre-session meeting Dec. 3 and provide this perspective, as well as answer questions from senators.

ASUI Pro Tempore Austin Karstetter said the role of ASUI in this conversation is to support students, and the senate will hopefully pass a resolution — which he said would most likely be written by Sen. Joseph Madsen — before the end of the year, showing support for the adoption of an amnesty policy by MPD.

“I feel like a lot of other people in the Senate, including Joe, are in support of ASUI supporting an amnesty policy,” Karstetter said.

Karstetter said ASUI and MPD maintain a positive and communicative relationship and believes the support of the ASUI Senate will be influential and hold weight in MPD’s decision.

“I think what we’re going to do is write a resolution, talk to them and see what we can do,” Karstetter said.

Cara Pantone can be reached at [email protected]

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