Police: Fall robberies not unusual trend

Penn Police are investigating two recent armed robberies, including one steps from Locust Walk. Although Penn has been hit by several robberies since the start of the school year, including one nighttime armed robbery near Locust Walk in the heart of campus, University Police officials insist the number of incidents on and around campus is relatively normal for this time of year. With the rapid return of thousands of people to campus -- particularly new students not acquainted with the area -- the level of criminal activity usually tends to peak in early fall, according to Vice President for Public Safety Thomas Seamon. Still, Seamon emphasized that the University Police are actively investigating the incidents. "We had a real good summer, [but]? we expected that if you have an extra 15,000 to 20,000 people on campus and everybody out, you're going to have more crime," Seamon said. "I guess the main thing is that we're not nonchalant about it." University Police Chief Maureen Rush explained that the first month of the school year provides a significant challenge, but one that Public Safety annually anticipates. "We never go blindly into September thinking it's going to be a cakewalk," Rush said. So far this year, there have been four robberies on or around campus, according to the Penn Police log book. Earlier this month, five Penn students walking on 40th Street between Chestnut and Walnut streets were robbed by a man carrying a semi-automatic weapon. And early Sunday morning, a female student was robbed at gunpoint while walking on 36th Street between Van Pelt Library and the Castle. Rush said the proximity to campus of last Sunday's incident is something University Police are "very concerned about," but both she and Seamon said that the incident was highly unusual. "That's a real aberration," Seamon said. "Frankly, a criminal doing that is taking a real chance." In addition, Philadelphia Police reported two unarmed robberies and two attempted robberies, all east of 42nd Street. One of the robberies involved a flim-flam scam and the other was a strong-arm purse snatch. The amount of police patrol did increase with the start of the school year but no additional officers have hit the streets as a result of the robberies, Rush said. She declined to comment about specific numbers, but noted that the force out there was "more than adequate." The 104-person University Police Department -- the largest private police force in Pennsylvania -- deploys officers on foot, bike, motorcycle and car, and regularly teams up with units from the Philadelphia Police Department. In addition, Penn and Philadelphia police have recently incorporated plainclothes officers into their patrols to help target crimes like robbery. In fall 1996, the University experienced an unprecedented string of armed robberies -- over 30 in the month of September alone -- that was capped off with the non-fatal shooting of a student during an attempted robbery on 40th Street outside Smokey Joe's Tavern. Since then, the robbery rate and overall crime rate have fallen sharply. But Seamon said University Police are faced with a somewhat new breed of outlaws in 1999. Whereas robbers would "just hang around campus? looking for victims" in the past, some have now resorted to robbing quickly and then making quick getaways out of the area -- a method Seamon admits is "more of a challenge for us to cope with." That's where the investigative tactics, rather than just more cops on patrol, come in, he said. Rush explained that although she could not comment specifically on any ongoing investigations, Public Safety's investigative unit has made significant progress with the recent robbery cases. "We are very, very pleased with the developments of our investigations," Rush said. "We hope to have something very shortly."