The recent wave of reality video is finding a place in State College's law enforcement community.

The State College Police Department is hoping some home video footage of the recent riots in Beaver Canyon will help them catch more suspects.

State College police recently put video stills of the July 16 riot on the Internet at
www.gov.state-college.pa.us/riot/riot.htm. The pictures show scenes from the riot, with arrows pointing to individuals the police are hoping to identify with the help of people who were there.

Although the stills have yet to yield any new arrests, they already have helped strengthen the charges against some of the defendants in the incident, said Sgt. Dana Leonard of the State College police.

Leonard said video footage identified some individuals who were only facing charges of failure to disperse, doing damage to property or attempting to interfere with officers making arrests.

Witnesses of the riot, Leonard said, donated the video footage. One of the videos appears to have been taken from one of the high-rises nearby, while the other is from street-level, he said.

"People have been really willing to help us out," Leonard said. "We're happy about how the community has come forward."

He said the police already have received quadruple the number of tips they normally receive, including six via telephone on Monday alone, but police will need corroborating evidence to make any new arrests.

Leonard said it is too early to tell if the video will, in fact, lead to any new arrests, because the investigations will take a long time.

Ashley Veitch (junior-biobehavioral health) said she doubted whether students would be willing to come forward to identify their peers in this situation.

"What they (the police) did was totally wrong," she said.

She added there is generally an unstated agreement among students that makes them unwilling to step forward and inform against another student.

Another potential problem with the video for police is the poor quality of the images. Many are blurry and often only show the back of an individual's head, Leonard said.

"What we're hoping," Leonard said, "is that people who know a person went out that night will be able to recognize the clothing or something else."

Leonard also said the relatively short length of the riot and the amount of damage done will hinder efforts to catch more suspects.

"In 1998, it lasted 2 and a half hours. This time, it was over in about 20 minutes, and did a lot less damage. There are going to be less people coming forward."

State College police are asking anyone with information to call Detective Chris Weaver at 234-7150.