NEWS • 03
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SPORTS • 13
ENTERTAINMENT • 17
SIGNAL SHEDDING LIGHT ON CAMPUS CRIME
Elijah Sarkesian • Signal
PERSPECTIVES • 23
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LIVING • 09
VOL. 78 • ISSUE 10 • OCTOBER 26, 2010 REGISTER ONLINE FOR BREAKING NEWS AT
w w w. g s u s i g n a l . c o m
By SHEENA ROETMAN Editor in Chief
So far this semester, three campus alerts have been dispatched via email to the Georgia State community, reporting two armed robberies and one robbery by intimidation. The campus alerts originate from the Crime Prevention Unit of the Georgia State Police Department and are federally mandated by the Clery Act, which is part of the Higher Education Act of 1965. Georgia State’s campus alerts are prepared and disseminated by Sgt. Kristal Perkins of the Crime Prevention Unit. They fall under the “access to timely information” statue, which requires that schools provide “timely warnings” of any “ongoing threat to students and employees” to the campus community. The statute also requires that schools publicly provide a more extensive incident log. A backlog of Georgia State’s campus alerts from January 2007 to the present can be viewed at www.gsu.edu/ police/34216.html. The armed robberies were reported by two separate Georgia State students and occurred within 20 minutes of each other on the evening of Sept. 20, according to a campus alert sent via e-mail at 9:38 a.m. on Sept. 21. Both incidents reported the same suspects: two unknown black males, one described as being 6 foot 2 inches and 300 pounds, wearing dark jeans and a “black polo type shirt” and the second being described as 5 foot 9 inches and 160 pounds and wearing a lime green shirt with “graphics on the front.” The first robbery occurred at 11:05 p.m. at Peachtree Street and Auburn Avenue and the second at 11:25 p.m. at Piedmont Avenue and Auditorium Place. There were no injuries reported in either instance. The most recent incident was described as robbery by intimidation and occurred on Sept. 29 at 1:55 p.m. inside Classroom South. A Georgia State student was approached by two black males, one described as being 5 foot 4 inches and weighting an estimated 120 pounds, wearing a grey shirt, baggy jeans and a blue cap. The other suspect was described as wearing a white T-shirt, jeans and a dark blue cap. According to the campus alert, the student was exiting the bathroom when one of the men grabbed him by the neck and the other threatened to shoot him if he protested. The student reported that he did not see any weapons and that he was not injured. When asked why the armed robbery reports did not include information about what the suspects were armed with, Perkins said that robberies are considered armed if the suspect “has a weapon or leads you to believe that they have a weapon.”
The campus alerts do not include personal information about the alleged victim or about what was taken during robberies because the alerts are meant to function as a community warning, not a police report. Such information is arbitrary to actually making an arrest. What is important to include in campus alerts, according to Perkins, is who, what, where and when. This includes time, location, whether the alleged victim was a Georgia State student, faculty member, or not affiliated with the university and a brief description of what occurred and the suspect’s appearance. Perkins said that campus alerts have helped lead to arrests in the past, but she could not name specific events. The public can also view weekly campus crime reports from the police department at listserv.gsu.edu/cgi-bin/ wa?A0=SAFETY-HEALTH. These reports include information about incidents that, according to the Clery Act, do not require a campus alert. The Clery Act also requires that schools report crimes that fall under seven categories, including criminal homicide, either murder and nonnegligent manslaughter or negligent manslaughter, sex offenses, either forcible sex offenses or non-forcible sex offenses, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft and arson. If any incident involved liquor law violations, drug law violations or illegal weapons possession result in arrest or disciplinary action, those incidents must also be reported to the campus community. The reports are also required to indicate whether or not the incident was a “hate crime.” According to the Clery Act’s website, the act requires schools to provide a statistical report every year by Oct. 1 that includes information on campus crime and specific security statements. The information is required to be immediately available to all current students and employees. Georgia State’s statistical information from 2007 to 2009 is available to the public at www.gsu. edu/police/33444.html. A copy of this information must also be provided to the Department of Education. Schools must also disclose crime statistics, unobstructed public areas immediately adjacent to or running through the campus, and certain noncampus facilities including Greek housing and remote classrooms. When asked what course of action the police department recommends to students and faculty who may find themselves in dangerous situations, Perkins said “Material things are not worth your life. Let them have it. Give it to them. It’s not worth you getting hurt over. Then, as they’re leaving, get as much information as you can.”