Campus police have recently released Seton Hill University’s (SHU) annual security report. Students, faculty, and even parents can take a look at the presence of different crimes here on campus and review polices upheld here on campus.
By Rachel Prichard
Staff Writer
Campus police have recently released Seton Hill University’s (SHU) annual security report. Students, faculty, and even parents can take a look at the presence of different crimes here on campus and review polices upheld here on campus.
“The report includes statistics for the previous three years concerning reported crimes that occurred on campus; in certain off-campus buildings owned or controlled by Seton Hill University; and on public property within, or immediately adjacent to and accessible from the campus,” said Mike Dell, chief of campus police.
According to the report, which holds statistics from 2004 to the end of the 2006 academic year, crimes are actually down here at SHU. Theft and vandalism, the two biggest crimes on campus, have decreased the most in the past two years. Disorderly conduct on campus is the only reported crime that has had an increase.
“Some of the people that we have had difficulty with have moved off campus and I just think students are maturing,” said Dell.
“They are realizing (that when) they break things up they end up paying for it in the long run,” he said.
Dell believes that students are the key to making the difference in the amount of crime on campus and thinks that vandalism will continue to decrease this year because of that.
Does the student body feel that crime has decreased? Casey Dugan, a junior was the victim of a burglary last year in Farrell Hall. While she was gone from her room, someone stole her laptop computer. The campus police had her review security camera tapes from the stairways in Farrell, but the assailant was never caught.
“When watching the security tapes from Farrell, I could only see the back of the head and up. I could barely see the face,” said Dugan.
Emily Gearheart, a junior, was Dugan’s roommate at that time, and she also had her laptop stolen out of the same room.
“I think that crime has probably increased recently because kids on campus think they can get away with it for the most part,” said Gearheart.
Campus police have been taking steps to help keep crimes down by using a new crime reporting system that helps keep track of problems on campus easier. They are also in the process of adding new part time staff.
“Any police department is only as efficient as the people they serve,” said Dell. “It takes both the community and the police working together.”