Crime down 6% for March, up 1% for year

Crime in the Penn Patrol zone decreased 6 percent in March compared to March last year, but the year-to-date crime total rose 1 percent from 2006 to 2007, Division of Public Safety officials said.

Despite the slight overall increase in crime in 2007, Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush said she was pleased with decreases in robberies, burglaries and aggravated assaults - crimes that she said are of particular concern to DPS because they directly endanger victims.

For the year so far, robberies decreased from 16 in 2006 to 14 in 2007, burglaries from 15 to six and aggravated assaults from 16 to two.

Burglaries and aggravated assaults also both went down in March 2007, compared to the same month last year. Five robberies occurred in both March 2006 and March 2007.

Rush credited Operation SAFE - an initiative spurred by a $5 million pledge President Amy Gutmann made last January to fight crime around campus - as a major factor in the decreases.

"The reality is that the University stepped up to the plate in January of last year," she said. "We invested in the people, in technology, in lighting and in education."

She cited improvements in lighting, increased police presence and CCTV camera coverage as key factors in reducing crime.

Rush said the CCTV cameras alert police to suspicious activity and help stop potential offenders.

She added that, when police make stops based on suspicious activity noticed on CCTV cameras, "nine times out of ten, that individual is wanted on a previous crime," allowing police to make an arrest and prevent a potential crime.

Despite these improvements, simple assaults rose from four in 2006 to 16 in 2007. They also rose to three in March 2007, up from one in the same month last year.

Seven of the 16 assaults in 2007 were attacks on police or security officers, a figure Rush called "alarmingly high."

She said that several of the suspects arrested for attacks against security officers were not from the Philadelphia area, and that alcohol was often a factor in those crimes.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.