The deputy city police chief said yesterday that if Pitt students prove they were “caught… The deputy city police chief said yesterday that if Pitt students prove they were “caught up” with protesters, the police will dismiss charges against them.

Following the announcement, a Pitt spokesman said the University wants to “treat people fairly” but is still try to determine how to refer students to its Judicial Board, which can suspend or expel students, marking a change from its stance yesterday.

“If we do determine that anyone was a student and merely caught up with the people down the street, then we’ll move to dismiss the charges,” Donaldson said. He didn’t elaborate on how students could prove they were “caught up” with protesters.

A group of city officials — including Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, County Chief Executive Dan Onorato, Chief of Police Nate Harper and Deputy City Police Chief Paul Donaldson — joined for a press conference in the mayor’s office at the City-County building yesterday afternoon. They recapped successes from the G-20 Summit and answered questions about the Oakland protests when prompted by reporters.

Shortly after, in a reversal of its previous stance, the University said it might not send all Pitt students who were arrested in Oakland Thursday or Friday to its Judicial Board.

Fedele said he can’t make “a blanket statement” about which students will be sent to the Judicial Board, which has the power to suspend or expel students.

But he did say, “I don’t think being arrested is a violation of student code. Being arrested does not mean you did the crime, so simply being arrested is not a violation of the student code.”

Fedele added, however, that if students are found guilty of crimes, they’ve likely violated the Student Code of Conduct and thus will be sent to the Judicial Board.

Fedele said he wasn’t sure whether the University will wait until after the city police decide whether to drop students’ charges to review students’ cases.

“It’s the type of thing that will probably be handled on an individual basis,” he said.

Fedele said University representatives have contacted city officials regarding their “shared desire to ensure that students caught up in the activities of Thursday and Friday evening be treated fairly.”

He said he didn’t know which administrators had contacted city officials or when they had contacted them.

Fedele declined to comment on the way the police acted Thursday and Friday.

“It would be premature to offer our own assessment at this point,” he said.

Ravenstahl said he thought police responded admirably, but that during an evaluation of the entire G-20 event and planning, they would also consider the use of police force.

“We will have that evaluation done and take a look at all the actions that took place,” Ravenstahl said. “But as a whole, I think the event delivered well.”

“You look at the demonstrations that took place, I think it was 13 of them that were peaceful, one that got out of hand and I think that’s a credit to the people here in Pittsburgh,” he said.

The mayor said that he thinks the number of public safety officers — 3,078 — who were in the city was an appropriate number.

“There were no major injuries at all. None, which is unprecedented for an event of this time and I think speaks volumes to the planning effort that went into this event,” Ravenstahl said.

Donaldson said police gave the order to disperse in Schenley Plaza on Thursday because of the crowd size and the G-20 activity at Pitt. He said on Friday night that the intent was to allow protesters to stay until 11:00 p.m.

“Then the order was given, but at 10:42, conditions had deteriorated and the decision was made to break the crowd up at that time,” Donaldson said.

He said police were concerned that there would be a repeat of Thursday night, when businesses’ windows were broken along Forbes Avenue and Craig Street.

When asked about students who might have been trapped or felt they had no place to disperse to, Donaldson said he “can’t understand that.”

“We didn’t see any movement on the protesters to disperse until after we started [to arrest people],” he said. “When that happened, then many of them tried to flee. And I think at that time, they were not really dispersing —­­ they were eluding prosecution. They were running away to get away from there.”

Donaldson estimated 700 to 800 people were in the area, although the Post-Gazette and The New York Times have estimates of 400 to 500. He guessed 85 percent of individuals were able to leave the area.

Police Chief Harper said he thought the officers were very professional.

He said he thought they “rose to level,” considering the number of protesters whose “intentions were on causing disruption in the city.”

One reporter asked the group whether or not they thought that when police released riot gas and shot rubber bullets at protesters, the action discouraged current and prospective students from studying in Pittsburgh.

“Any thought of reaching out to Pitt students and saying, ‘Hey, we love you?’” the reporter asked.

There was some laughter in the crowd, and Ravenstahl laughed, as well.

“We love you,” he said to more laughter.