Beat Outline

This beat would be important to the local community because it focuses on the crime/criminal activity that takes place in a smaller, tight-knit community. Having lived in a small town prior to my time in Pullman I have an understanding that the community not only is interested in their town's well-being, but also they want to know of any crimes that could affect that well-being. With that being said, in Pullman, I would estimate over 70% of the crime would stem from activities from the college, from so called "out-of-towners". Historical topics on this subject stem from the riots back in the late 90's, drug busts, all of the various bar fights/assaults over the years, DUI's, and all of the hate crimes that took place last semester. It's hard to come up with upcoming issues because it's hard to predict crime, but maybe there's an underlying issue to look for whether it be crime rates are higher during specific weekends ie. Mom's/Dad's Weekend, football weekends, beginning/end of school...etc. I'll try to define the beat by trying to determine an underlying issue whether there is a specific reasoning for these crimes, whether it be related to alcohol or whatnot.

Three story ideas include
1) Looking at alcohol sales in Pullman from (bars, liquor store, grocery stores) and seeing if there is a correlation between high sale rates and high campus crime rates.
2) How the police are trying to crack down on Pullman crime rates such as implimenting more policies like the one about both parties being involved in fighting.
3) How WSU student conduct deals with student crimes/convictions.

Three crime related articles dealing with various crimes around WSU and two universities in Kansas

National Stalking Awareness Month

Hate Crimes at WSU

RCoape at Two Kansas Universities

The articles are significant because they represent crimes that are common place around colleges and could be said that these are topics I could possibly cover during my beat.  Although with my beat I would like to see what and if there are underlying factors for the crimes.

Three potential contacts regarding my story would be

Pullman Police Chief William "Ted" Weatherly 332-2521

Student Conduct Officer Elliott Flavors              335-4532

Sociology Associate Professor Lisa McIntyre     335-5705

The police chief is obvious because he will have knowledge about all of the going-ons in Pullman.  The student conduct officer would have knowledge on the the decisions/verdicts of anything involving student related crimes.

The sociology professor would be the one to help me determine the social aspects of why people commit crimes.