An OU police undercover investigation paid off Wednesday when officers arrested a man in an OU bathroom for indecent exposure.Apparently, some OU bathrooms are being used as a meeting point for men to pick up other men for sex. The men expose their genitals to those entering the bathroom as an invitation for sex, said Lt. Bruce Chan of the OU Department for Public Safety. Complaints, peep holes, graffiti on bathroom stalls and Internet sites drew police attention to the location. Chan said undercover officers check these areas frequently undercover.OUDPS Sgt. Tim Tucker said he approached the third floor bathroom in Physical Sciences Center dressed in civilian clothes and observed the area for several hours. At some point, Tucker said he saw a man showing his genitalia from under the stall door. Tucker said he called the arrest team and the man, who police identified as James Jeffrey Hall, 35, was arrested at 601 Elm Ave. Hall was booked into jail on felony charges for indecent exposure.Chan said there have been numerous complaints about men exposing themselves to others using the facilities over the past years. People who show such behavior are known as cruisers, because they cruise public places for sex, Chan said.Tucker said the police have been aware of the problem since the 1980s. Police investigate and patrol the areas throughout the campus frequently to discourage men from openly outraging public decency by engaging in overt sexual acts in the public men's rooms, Chan said.Over the years, the OUDPS has made several arrests, which temporarily slowed down the activities, Chan said. The difficulty in shutting the activities down for good is that meeting points on campus have shifted over time all over campus. The police are currently aware of locations in Physical Sciences Center and Bizzell Memorial Library. In the past, locations in Oklahoma Memorial Union have been under investigation, Tucker said. To stop cruisers from cutting new peepholes, bathroom divider walls in the union have been replaced with marble walls. However, people have gone as far as to bring in power tools to drill new holes, he said. The arrested man was not affiliated with OU, which brings up the question of how prominent OU is as a meeting point for the activities."I don't know how the word passes, but the men know where this is going on," Tucker said.OUDPS has theories about how people know about the bathrooms. Graffiti suggesting contacts or dates can be found all over the bathroom stalls, and it seems as if the graffiti is concentrated in particular facilities, Tucker said. In addition, technology has advanced communication, he said. There are Internet sites that keep potential cruisers up to date. OU police provided The Oklahoma Daily with excerpts from a Web site which provides detailed information about locations at OU and other universities in Oklahoma. One message reads, "The third floor restroom of the Physical Science building now has a gloryhole, but is now being monitored fairly heavily."Chan said, OUDPS conducted the undercover detail in order to respond to criminal behavior. He said the investigations are not targeted at a certain lifestyle or group of people, but strictly against the behavior. "There is no problem with anybody's lifestyle," Tucker said. "If one asks the other out on a date - no problem. But if there is somebody using the bathroom and turns around and there stands a man with his pants down, masturbating, that is a problem."Gregg Fryday, secretary of Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgendered and Friends, said that unfortunately some people highlight the behavior ofsome individuals and use it to stereotype a group. Incidents like this do not represent all homosexuals, he said."Every time something like this happens, people who oppose the homosexual lifestyle will stereotype to dehumanize gay people," Fryday said.Tucker said in the past men, of all socioeconomic backgrounds have been arrested. Some were even married with children. In addition, the men reported a number of completely different motivations for their action, Tucker said. Besides bothering the public, there is a considerable amount of damage done to the property with frequently reoccurring peep holes. Another issue is the public health hazard."These guys make a mess," Tucker said. He said the men leave bodily fluids behind in the bathrooms.Efforts to stop the cruisers continue. Chan said follow-up undercover operations are planned.hello there & you too
