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Thursday, May 17, 2007

UW Treading Water After Griego Murder

posted by on May 17 at 13:21 PM

The PI has two articles out today, revealing how UWPD dropped the ball in handling Rebecca Griego’s stalking case and how they’re struggling to keep up with the influx of domestic violence cases.

The first piece details the failed system at UWPD that lead to Griego’s case being closed by UWPD, days before she was murdered in Gould Hall.

“There weren’t any other leads to follow up,” [Assistant UW Police Chief Ray] Wittmier said.

On March 28, the detective wrote: “As of this writing, Griego has not received further contact from Rowan. Case inactivated.”

5 days later, Griego was killed. My article, which ran yesterday, about a young woman at UW seeking protection from her ex-boyfriend, shows that UW still hasn’t fixed their broken threat assessment system. Wittmier told me that the young woman’s case had been evaluated by their assessment team and was closed. So was Griego’s.

Unsurprisingly, people have been more apt to report cases like this to UWPD and a second story from the PI sheds some statistical light on the increased caseload at UW:

More than three times as many employees have sought help from the university’s workplace violence-prevention assessment team since Jonathan Rowan fatally shot Griego on April 2 than came forward in the entire year before

Team members have had to meet two or three times weekly since Griego’s homicide to handle the 53 requests for help — a dramatic increase over the 15 threat assessments done the previous year.

I’m sure it’s busy down at UWPD these days but after Griego’s murder, how is it that they can be so confident that their assessments are accurate? The young woman I wrote about is genuinely afraid and her teachers and peers have been supportive - setting up a security program for her when UW wouldn’t - but ultimately, the risk and the responsibility of keeping UW’s campus safe for its students shouldn’t fall to them.

If UWPD was able to let Griego’s case get filed away, how long will it be before another young woman slips through the cracks?

RSS icon Comments

1

Where is the blame for SPD in all this? Griego called them many times, filed several reports, and they didn't do anything to Rowan.

How can UWPD be expected to solve problems that go beyond their scope? That's like expecting US soldiers to stop the sectarian violence in Iraq.

Posted by Gomez | May 17, 2007 1:44 PM
2

The university can't afford to provide protection for women with crazed and possesive ex-boyfriends; just like they can't afford the additional police needed to tame the fucking savages in the frat houses.

But what they can afford is to make the president, Mark Emmert, the fourth highest paid college administrator in the country.

Posted by GO DAWGS! | May 17, 2007 5:43 PM
3

Of course, they're going to try and blame the women for this- 'cause lord knows that well publicized homicides NEVER inspire potential killers to take similar action.

And you know, mail tapes to NBC.
Montreal, Mormons..Cho. Whatever, right?

Posted by Victoria | May 17, 2007 7:02 PM
4

Jonah, what exactly do you think the UW can or should do to stop a man who is bent on killing his ex? Sure, they could have kept this and every other case in history open, but you are quibbling over paperwork that would not have changed a thing. Even if the UW raised tuitions and fortified the campus, that wouldn't help when workers go home at night. This is a general law enforcement issue that needs to be handled by the Seattle police, not the UW rent-a-cops.

This seems like yet another case of the idiotic media looking for someone to burn at the stake. If you care about this issue, than write about the solutions. Personally, I don't think the police can put an end to murderous ex-boyfriends any more than they can put an end to theft, but I'm ready to be proven wrong.

Posted by Sean | May 18, 2007 3:29 PM
5

First of all, the UW Police ARE real police, no less real than SPD or ANY other police you care to name. Second, yes, steps were missed and there was no assessment for Griego's case as there should have been. Third, there WAS an assessment for this case being referred to even though the case is actually being investigated by SPD, NOT UWPD because that is where the victim chose to make her report. So, yes, it is a VERY good question why UWPD is the only scapegoat here.

I suggest you actually READ the report before coming to any conclusions. It is very enlightening.

Posted by Moi | May 23, 2007 1:40 PM

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