The Observer, February 15, 2008
Volume XL, Issue 17
Campus crime is preventable
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The Federal Bureau of Investigation recently released their preliminary crime reports for 2007 that show a nationwide decrease of 1.8 percent for violent crimes. Their statistics also show that crime has gone down in Cleveland, but does that mean students feel safer on campus?
The answer is no. At best, students feel that crime on campus has not changed at all in the past few years. Art Hardee, chief of police and director of security for Case, says this could be because crime has gone up in areas surrounding the Case campus, contradicting statistics from the rest of the city.
Junior Emily Horacek is one of the many who do not feel safe on campus, especially when it is dark outside. In order to feel better she walks in groups and has on occasion called Security to get a ride. "I don't feel like they educate us enough on personal safety," said Horacek.
Horacek, who has never had any problems herself, does have a friend who was mugged on her way to a local elementary school. She feels as though nothing was done to help her friend or to prevent further incidents from taking place.
Lieutenant Vincent K. Johnstone of the campus police department says there are a lot of things students can do to stay safe. Most important is for students to call if they are a victim of or witness to a crime.
"A lot of times we've had incidents where students had been robbed or someone pulled up to them and said 'get in the car.' They go to a class or two, come back that evening and talk about it with their friends. They should say 'Hey, you need to report it."...We want to catch the bad guys. We want to make sure that if something happens we can get on it right away," said Johnstone.
Johnstone says there are many simple ways to stay safe on campus, including only listening to your music with one earphone in so that you can hear what's going on around you. Talking to someone on your cell phone may deter a person from attacking you.
Hardee said that one thing students can do to be safer on campus is to take advantage of the programs offered. These programs include the Rape Aggression Defense (R.A.D.) Course and the Campus Escort Services. R.A.D. is a course that teaches women how to react when they are being attacked. Campus Escorts are volunteers trained by security and will walk with anyone to anywhere on or near campus, 24 hours a day.
In addition to their day-to-day crime prevention, Case Police have been implementing new programs that would help the Case community in the event of a campus-wide emergency. One of the most impressive and least known changes is that the police now have a fully operational Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) Team.
The plan to create a SWAT team has been in the works since the shooting that took place in the Peter B. Lewis Building in 2003, but the more recent shooting at Virginia Tech sped up the process. "We did what we had to do to come up to the level where we would be able to provide good protection," says Johnstone about the department's reaction following the Virginia Tech shooting.
Earlier this school year, a mock explosion was held in the Veale Athletic Center to see how well the campus would be able to respond to a mass casualty situation. Johnstone says that the squad could have communicated better over their radios. "What was good was nobody panicked, everybody worked together, and, for it being the first one, it worked out very well." Hardee noted that the campus is planning on continuing to do these practices about once a year, with a new scenario each time. Both Hardee and Johnstone believe that the Emergency Response Scenarios are good learning experiences for everyone involved.
The CaseWARN system is new to the school this year and will be used in the event of an emergency. It is a text and voice messaging system that will be used to notify the Case community if there is a major campus emergency. In order to receive the notification, those interested must sign up for the service by going to the Case ITS webpage (www.case.edu/its) and looking under the services menu.
Hardee hopes that "more people will sign up for it so that in the case of an incident on campus we can alert them. We like the system because it will allow us, if something's going on in a certain area, to alert the people in that particular area. If it's something that the entire campus should know about, we have an opportunity to make the entire campus aware."
Despite ongoing threats, Campus Police have been doing a pretty good job of keeping the Case community safe. They were able to apprehend the famous "elephant stair mugger" last year. After several reported incidents of muggings on the elephant stairs, Campus Police began patrolling the stairs and sent in undercover agents; eventually the man committing the crimes was arrested. As it turns out, Cleveland Police were also looking for the same man.
Campus Police are always available in the event of an emergency and are trying their hardest to keep students safe. The Case campus is not in a bubble, though, so some crime will find its way onto campus. The Case Police cannot be everywhere and need the community's help to keep everyone safe. If you see something suspicious or are concerned, call campus security at (216) 368-3333.
