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AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

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Officials name senior vice president, chief of staff
By Fiona Riley, Assistant News Editor • March 26, 2024

WEB EXTRA: UPD chief says semester featured more liquor law violations, assaults on officers

University Police Chief Dolores Stafford said this semester has been marked by a disproportionately high number of assaults on her officers and liquor law violations.

“On average, there will usually only be one case where someone assaulted a law enforcement officer,” she said. “For one reason or another, we’ve had four assaults on officers this semester alone, a huge deviation from the past.”

On Sept. 9, an “extremely intoxicated” female bit a cop in the arm in Ivory Tower after he approached her and tried to get her to sit down on a couch in the lobby. The female was arrested, taken to GW Hospital to be treated for extreme alcohol consumption and was later charged with assault at Metropolitan Police’s Second District Headquarters. Again later that month and then twice in October, UPD officers were assaulted on campus, and two of those incidents also ended in arrest.

Stafford also added that in addition to an increase of assaults on police officers this semester and a string of robberies that occurred in October, she she has also noticed an unusually high amount of liquor law violations since late August. She said she could not provide any statistics regarding liquor law violations and referred The Hatchet to Student Judicial Services. SJS Director Tara Woolfson could not provide statistics as of press time.

Despite an extremely violent incident that occurred between junior transfer student Chad Dauman and senior Akeem Samuels in early October – which left Samuels severely beaten and in the intensive care unit of GW Hospital and Dauman facing potential indictment for aggravated assault – Stafford said that student-on-student violence has not increased compared to other semesters.

Stafford also highlighted an initiative UPD has been expanding and working on since March – the Neighborhood Action Team program, which allows Foggy Bottom residents to report minor campus-related incidents to UPD. This was the first full semester the Neighborhood Action Team fielded community concerns.

She said, “In addition to fielding calls from the community and dealing with minor issues, this program helps to relieve the pressure of MPD, who has to cover the entire District and may not always be as available to deal with calls of this nature.”

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