Crime is down, fear is not, amid recent robberies

A rash of high-profile crimes on and near campus has led many students to fear what have been safer streets. Though University Police statistics show a significant drop in crime over the past year, some students say they feel less safe than the numbers indicate -- possibly a result of a high-profile series of recent armed robberies. "I think it's very out of control this year," Engineering sophomore Kathryn Martinez said. "It seems like it's creeping closer and closer to campus." Students passing through the lobby of Harnwell College House yesterday offered a variety of opinions on the subject of campus crime and safety. "I guess I feel unsafe because it's affected some friends of mine" this year, Engineering sophomore Evelyn Kim said. "It hits home more." College junior Laura John said that while the number of incidents does not seem to have increased during her time at Penn, crime appears to be happening across a broader spectrum of campus locations. "There is kind of a sense that something could happen anywhere," John said. "It's not just people who are drunk coming from parties that are getting robbed," College sophomore Kate Koren added. "It's anyone." But at the same time, a large number of students say they feel just as confident walking on and around campus as they ever have. "I haven't noticed any change," Engineering junior Kurt Klinger said. "I haven't felt any more or less safe or any more or less threatened." College senior Tariq Remtulla said security has never been an issue for him during his years at Penn, but he added that it never hurts to take precautions. "I don't think I've ever really felt unsafe," Remtulla said. "I'm careful where I go, but that's important everywhere." Regardless of people's stance on whether the campus is less safe than in years past, a series of relatively high-profile incidents since the start of the school year has caught the attention of most people. In early September, a group of Penn students walking on 40th Street were robbed with what was believed to be a semi-automatic weapon. A few days later, a female student was robbed at gunpoint just steps from Locust Walk. And a few weeks ago, a male University student was held up outside the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity house on Spruce Street. Martinez, a resident of Harnwell College House, said the early evening robbery near AEPi helped jolt her sense of security on campus. "That was right behind where we live," she said. The University was plagued by dozens of armed robberies during the fall of 1996 -- a period that police officials have described as "hysteria" in the past. Since then, through security initiatives and economic development, campus safety has improved dramatically. An almost 70 percent decrease in the number of robberies over the past three years is one example. But in many ways, the issue of public perception has presented University Police with a different type of challenge. "It's a reality," University Police Chief Maureen Rush said. "Some people do not feel safe.? If we had the idea of why the perception is different this year, we would sleep better." Rush explained that because an armed robbery naturally sparks more public discussion than a recent police arrest, people are bound to focus on the negative. "It's extremely frustrating when someone commits a crime and it's even more frustrating when people feel like they have to fear walking down the street," Rush said. "I think it's important that people realize we're not reactionary." University Police Det. Supervisor Bill Danks agreed, citing last month's arrest of a man believed responsible for two knifepoint robberies involving Penn students this year. "We're showing results," Danks added. Though she admitted it is almost impossible to please everyone in an urban environment, Rush said that ultimately she hopes people will see "the big picture" showing crime levels down and a Division of Public Safety intent on keeping things headed in that direction. "Sometimes people forget that this is more than a college police force," Rush said. "People think that because it's campus public safety, it must be a mom-and-pop operation. It's not."

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