Overall Jan. crime rate rises slightly

Overall crime this January rose by 8.3 percent as compared to last January and 10.2 percent as compared to December 2009, according to statistics provided by the Division of Public Safety.

Theft from buildings showed the biggest change from January 2009 to this January, increasing by 142.9 percent. Retail thefts, by contrast, decreased by 35.7 percent.

Vice President of Public Safety Maureen Rush said these thefts include not only those from academic buildings but also from hospitals and other establishments in DPS’s patrol area.

“Anytime there’s a theft in a building, we have one of our detectives e-mail the building administrators so they are aware that a crime has occurred,” Rush said.

She explained that DPS detectives are working with building administrators to “target harden,” which entails ensuring that doors remain locked and that people are not “leaving computers and pocketbooks on desks and walking away.”

The increase in thefts from buildings, Rush said, indicates that people are failing to exercise sufficient caution.

“Our community wants to be an open community, [but] we want to make sure people who use our buildings realize they aren’t at home — they aren’t in their living rooms,” she said, characterizing theft awareness as a “continual battle.”

In addition, 46 reports of other thefts — including purse snatchings — were filed last month, exceeding last January’s count by six.

Violent crime increased from eight reports in January 2009 to nine reports last month.

Of these, four robberies were reported, along with one aggravated assault and four simple assaults. Aggravated assault, as a category, involves more serious injury than simple assault.

While the rates of both robbery and aggravated assault saw marginal increases compared to last January, the number of simple assaults reported remained constant.

Crimes against property also exhibited a 7.7-percent increase, rising from 52 incidents reported last January to a total of 56 in January 2010.

“[The incidents] are really scattered,” Penn Police Chief Mark Dorsey said. “A lot of things happen in libraries and other public places where people have left things out.”

However, he added that DPS has made two successful arrests thus far with the aid of its campus-wide camera system. One individual was apprehended for allegedly stealing a computer, while the other currently has an arrest warrant pending for the same offense.

Compared to last year, however, burglaries dropped by 66.7 percent. There have also been no bicycle thefts reported this year.

By contrast, theft from automobiles rose by 75 percent — from four incidents in January 2009 to seven last month — and automobile theft has remained constant, with a single incident reported in January of both years.

Compared with last January, the number of walking escort requests submitted increased by 18.4 percent, reaching a total of 747 by the end of the month.

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