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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2000
HOW SAFE IS BEHREND?
Residents, lock your doors
Mr. Donahue of Police and Safety asks for campus help
and urges students to prevent 4 crimes of opportunity 9
by Liz Hayes
news editor
Campus theft seems to be an
unusual problem this semester. Mr.
William Donahue, manager of
Police and Safety Services, recently
commented that Penn State Behrend
is experiencing an
unusually costly rise
in stealing
Approximately in
the last three weeks,
Behrend has had
about $20,000 in
classroom equipment
stolen. Also, one
student reported the
theft of a notebook
In one of the
computer labs, a window was
broken and a projector stolen.
Donahue says that this crime was
apparently well planned and not a
spur-of-the-moment occasion. As
for the theft of the notebook
computer, it appears that a student
left her computer temporarily in the
care of another. Amidst some
confusion,the computer was stolen
while she was gone.
Donahue believes that the theft of
the notebook was more a "crime of
opportunity" than a previously
thought out plan. According to
How do Behrend's crime stats compare
to other Penn State campuses?
The following crime statistics were acquired from the main Penn State Police Services’ website
at www.psu.edii/dept/police/pol_sa_u.html They are also available in the United States Depart
ment of Justice publication, Crime in the United States.
These statistics are reported to the Pennsylvania State Police. They are part of the annual secu
rity report which provides crime statistics that are reported by local police agencies and campus
security authorities. The statistics reported here are said to generally reflect the number of crimi
nal incidents reported to the various authorities.
The statistics reported on liquor laws, drug laws, and weapons offenses represent the number of
people arrested or referred to campus judicial authorities for respective violations, not the number
of offenses documented. Prior to 1999, referrals to judicial authorities were collected on an aca
demic year basis.
Penn State Campuses
(Student Population;
On-campus Residents)
Abington (3,200; 0)
Altoona (3,800; 900)
Beaver (800;250)
Berks (2,000; 390)
Delaware (1,500;0)
Dußois (1,Q00;0)
Erie (3,600; 1,500)
Fayette (1,000;0)
Harrisburg (3,500; 400)
Hazelton (1,300; 475)
Lehigh Valley (500;0)
McKeesport (1,100; 200)
Mont Alto (1,300; 450)
New Kensington (800; 0)
Schuylkill (1,250; 250)
Shenango (1,000; 0)
University Park
(40,000; 13,000)
Wilkesbarre (1,000; 0)
Worthington Scranton
(1,600; 0)
(1,600; 0)
+ - information unavailable; numbers represent statistics from 1997/1998/ 1999; Bolded items represent Penn State Behrend statistics
Donahue, much of the personal theft
seen on campus is of this
spontaneous nature. Someone will
walk past an open and unattended
residence hall room, see easily
removed items or accurately assume
where valuables would be stored,
and quickly walk off with them.
“This advice is not designed to make people
paranoid; 99% of people are legitimate, but it only
takes that one time to compromise security.”
Police and Safety Services is
currently looking for any leads in
these thefts. Donahue was quick to
point out that on several occasions
janitorial staff and students have
been instrumental in identifying and
apprehending those guilty of theft.
Often housekeeping staff will notice
missing or out of place items when
cleaning that may otherwise go
unnoticed for a long period of time,
thereby making it difficult to solve
the crime. Donahue also referred
to a fairly recent incident in which
two students saw an individual
Murder
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Mr. William Donahue, breeding
Manager o! Police and Safety Services false sense
Manslaughter
Offenses
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10/11/8
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leaving the Engineering Complex
with two computers that ended up
being stolen. These students relayed
this information to Police and
Safety, and the guilty party was
apprehended.
Donahue urges students to take
action against possible crimes of
opportunity.
While
for resident
students. He pointed out that while
students may trust the other
residents of their hall, they could
still fall victim to strangers
inadvertently allowed into the
buildings. For this reason he
recommends that students keep
room doors locked whenever
possible, and to avoid letting people
follow into residence halls. “This
advice is not designed to make
people paranoid; 99% of people are
legitimate, but it only takes that one
time to compromise security.”
Burglary
Assault
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NEWS
Behrend versus other Erie
colleges
On the United States De
partment of Education
Website, there is a section
devoted to Campus Security
Statistics. This site provides
crime reports on over 6,000
colleges and universities in
the U.S.
The Office of
Postsecondary Education (a
division of the Dept. Of
Education) provides these
statistics. In 1998, an
amendment to the 1965
Higher Education Act
(HEA) was passed by Con
gress that was designed to
aid potential college stu
dents and their parents re
search colleges’ reported
criminal offenses when
making college choices.
recently,
residence
hall crime
has not been
major
problem, it
may be
of security
Murder
Forcible Sex
Offenses
Robbery
Aggravated
Assault
Burglary
Motor Vehicle
Theft
Arson
Negligent
Manslaughter
Hate Crimes
Arrests
Referrals
Robbery
+/+/0
+/+/0
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+/+/0
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+/+/32
+/+/0
+/+/0
+/+/0
Penn State
Behrend
Crimes*
Motor
Vehicle
Theft
Arson
0/0/0
0/0/0
0/1/0
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which
By October 1 of each year,
Title IV eligible schools are
required to publish and dis
tribute an annual campus se
curity report to all students
and empolyees of that
school. In addition, these
schools are required to pro
vide timely crime alerts in an
attempt to prevent similar
crimes from occurring, and
to protect those that may be
affected by related crimes.
On this website, students
and potential students may
search for specific colleges,
or by a variety of character
istics such as location, of
fered programs, and school
size. Several local colleges
are listed, including Penn
State Behrend, Gannon,
Gannon
Arrests
Liquor I Dru g | Weapons Liquor Drug Weapons
Laws Laws Laws Laws
()/()/() 0/0/0 0/0/0 o/o/o 0/0/0 0/0/0
21/135/25 1/23/5 0/0/o__ +/+/7_ +/+/14 +/+/0
9/158/9 1/0/4 0/0/0 +/+/35 +/+/12 +l+l \
0/1/6 0/0/1 0/0/0 +/+/76 +l+l2 +l+l l
0/3/1 0/0/0 0/0/0 +l+lo +l+lo +/+/0
0/1/0 0/0/0 0/0/0 +/+/0 +l+lo +l+lo
\1116161 0/5/9 0/0/0 _ +/+/19 +/+/3 +/+/0
0/1/0 0/0/0 0/0/0 +/+/0 +/+/0 +/+/0
6/2/1 0/3/3 0/0/0 +l+lo +l+lo +l+lo
15/13/0 1/23/0 0/0/0 +/+/17 +l+l2 +l+lo
0/0/0 0/0/0 0/0/0 +l+lo +l+lo +/+/1
0/14/2 0/0/1 0/0/0 +/+/7 +/+/6 +/+/0
7/48/26 1/2/6 0/0/0 +/+/10 +/+/1_ +/+/0
0/0/0 0/0/0 0/0/0 +/+/0 +/+/Q +/+/Q
3/2/14 0/0/1 0/0/0 +/+/8 +/+/2 +/+/0
0/0/0 0/0/0 0/0/0 +l+lo +l+lo +l+lo
260/ 97/
503/195 137/84 1/1/1 +/+Z447 +/+/19 +l+l2
0/1/0 0/0/0 0/0/0 +l+lo +l+lo +l+lo
0/1/0 0/0/0 0/0/0 +l+l2 +l+lo +l+lo
0/0/0 0/0/0 0/0/0 +l+lo +l+lo +l+lo
Crimes
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All stats from www.psu.edu/dept/police/pol_sa_u.html
safer?
Edinboro, and Mercyhurst.
Statistics for the past three
years are listed (1997,
1998, and 1999). Statistics
for the year 2000 are not
yet available.
Below are some of the
major crime statistics for
1999. While there are sev-
eral more categories of
crime statistics provided by
this site, the more relevant
to Behrend are listed. Also
listed are the comparable
statistics for Mercyhurst,
Gannon, and Edinboro.
For more information on
this site or for more de
tailed statistics, log on to
www.ope.ed.go v/s e curi ty.
Mercyhurst
Edinboro
Referrals
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