In hopes of identifying additional riot participants, State College Police Chief Tom King requested Monday that any video or still camera footage taken by witnesses at the scene be turned over into police custody.

According to Lt. Diane Conrad, that request is being honored.

By Tuesday, the police station had three tapes in its possession and yesterday there were messages from others who planned to come forward with information, Conrad said.

Police hope to use the footage to identify any other offenders who were not arrested at the scene and to recognize additional crimes committed by those who were arrested.

Conrad said videos will help them get at least a few more identifications, adding about 10 people were apprehended from the videos turned over to police in the 1998 riot.

In the aftermath of the first riot, many violators found their pictures posted at local businesses after being downloaded and printed from the Web site, www.gov.state-college.pa.us.

Police plan to post photos obtained of blatant violators in this year's riot on the Web site for identification as well, Conrad said.

Sgt. John Wilson said the department expects the videos to be helpful in their investigation. He added police also are hoping to have people report what they witnessed, even if they didn't catch it on film or video.

"We asked for any coverage with the last incident in 1998 and it helped. It involves cooperation from the community," Wilson said.

Some students, however, are more skeptical of the usefulness of King's request.

Tom McKnight (sophomore-information sciences and technology), who witnessed the riot from his residence on Beaver Avenue, said he doesn't think the videos will be helpful.

"I really don't think anyone's going to rat anyone else out," he said.

McKnight said if there was more property damage, as in the 1998 riot, people might be more likely to come out to identify violators for prosecution.

"If you have personal damages, you'll be more upset," said Kristin Goold (sophomore-animal bioscience). "This is more like, it's over now, let's forget about it."

Both McKnight and Goold agreed that more of an issue is being made of this year's incident than is necessary.

But police, however, have a different view of the situation.

Conrad said the behavior witnessed at the weekend's riot was no different from that seen two years ago, and might have, in fact been worse. She added the only reason excessive damages were avoided was that police were more prepared and were able to react more quickly.

"You can see it in the videos we have right now," Conrad said. "You can see how much more serious the situation would have been if we hadn't been able to react right away."