Hazing became illegal in 1993, but Seattle police have never had a hazing complaint

The fraternity brothers at Delta Kappa Epsilon devised a straightforward routine for handling police interruptions during the ritualized abuse of new members: Stall the cops and hide the trouble.

Turns out they needn't have gone to the trouble.

Since the state Legislature made hazing illegal in 1993, the Seattle Police Department has not received a single formal complaint of hazing from the public, the University of Washington or the student organization that represents local fraternities, according to Officer Sean Whitcomb, the department's liaison to UW and the fraternities.

That's not to say that hazing doesn't happen. Fraternity members often tell their families and friends about the abuses they endure. They show up in public with shaved heads or walking sideways or running around campus in their underwear. They turn in up lawsuits and in obscure references to hazing on UW's website.

Where they don't show up is in criminal court.

Washington's law, one of 41 anti-hazing statutes in the country, has proved ineffective in stopping what is widely considered to be dangerous conduct that goes unchecked or unpunished until someone gets killed or injured.

"Hazing laws don't work well in terms of getting charges," said Hank Nuwer, author of three books on hazing.

The same could be same of the University of Washington's efforts to stomp out hazing in fraternities.

Before the case of John LaDuca, who committed suicide in 1998 the day after his fraternity's initiation rites ended, the UW's Office of Student Affairs office had not investigated a single incident of fraternity hazing since 1993 - even though a top administrator said more than a dozen complaints had been made during that time.

Ernest Morris, the vice president of student affairs, said those complaints have included "two or three that made us wonder about the health and welfare of the people involved." But he said his office has never reported those complaints to police.

"We don't judge criminal matters," Morris said, "and we don't bring police into these matters unless we have reason to believe there's imminent danger to the well-being of someone.

Morris said the university has little control over what happens off campus, nonetheless UW encourages students via its web site and in student newspaper advertisements to report hazing to university officials.

When students or parents do call to report problems, the student-affairs staff has no system or protocol for recording and processing complaints, according to Susan Manning, the vice president's assistant. It relies instead on an informal memo system, phone calls and e-mails to the local fraternity governing board advisor, and the judgment of administrators as to whether an incident is serious enough to pursue.

The Interfraternity Council, described by its alumni group as the "chamber of commerce" for local fraternities, is the main source of discipline. It ferrets out problems and recommends discipline for its member fraternities.

IFC advisor, John Rhodes, said the group exists primarily for education, not punishment.

"We don't put people in jail, and there's a lot of people who are upset because they want us to do that," he said. "Fraternities have a lot of different venues they're accountable to, and we're just one of them."