Police chief calls for improvements

But "UA crime is no different than a city with 60,000 people," Hueston said to about 10 listeners in a speech titled "Campus Crime: Myth or Reality" in McClelland Hall.

"We have a lot of work to do," he added.

In 1995 and 1996, Hueston said, the number of on-campus arsons rose, rapes were rarely reported and there were no murders.

"Police Beat adds to the misconception," he said, referring to the Arizona Daily Wildcat's crime blotter. "Some stupid things that happened are placed there."

Hueston said he will make departmental and campus-related patrol changes beginning March 1.

Adding more blue light emergency phones will top his agenda. Hueston said he plans to have 64 more blue light phones installed on campus so students can speak to University of Arizona Police Department dispatchers free of charge.

"If I can save one person's life, I will," he said.

Fourteen blue light phones are now on campus, all south of East Speedway Boulevard.

Hueston, a student at Kent State during the 1970 Vietnam riots, graduated with a teaching degree and returned to his alma mater to start his law enforcement career.

After earning a master's degree, he came to the UA in 1985 as the UAPD's assistant police chief.

In May he earned a higher education administration doctorate from the UA. Hueston is now one of three police officers in the United States with a doctorate.

Hueston studied campus rape for 25 years as the subject of his doctoral dissertation.

"The way we teach and deal with campus rape is not real," he said.

His study, taken from police reports, shows that a majority of college rapes occur at parties - by individuals a victim knows for about 45 minutes.

UA's undergraduate Society of Criminal Justice Studies sponsored the lecture.