Crime rises 12.2 percent in 2010

Despite the fact that total crime was up by 12.2 percent from 2009, “2010 was a good year,” according to Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush.

Combating unattended property theft remained an ongoing challenge. In both 2009 and 2010, theft was the most commonly committed crime on campus. The number of thefts from buildings increased from 213 in 2009 to 340 in 2010, while total theft (including purse snatching) rose from 629 in 2009 to 733 in 2010.

Despite the strength this year of the Unattended Property Theft Campaign — which involves the confrontation of students who leave property unattended by security guards — Rush stressed that the campaign is a communal effort. “We can’t do it alone,” she said.

However, DPS sees its greatest successes this year in its efforts against crimes involving property. In an attempt to tackle the disappearance of bicycles, DPS installed motion-sensing cameras on problem bike racks. They were able to make enough arrests based upon the surveillance footage that “bicycle theft went down 12 percent in the fiscal year,” Rush said.

Although total retail theft rose from 104 in 2009 to 114 in 2010, Rush emphasized that this slight increase is inconsequential compared to the hypothetical increase that may have occurred had DPS not taken any preventative measures. By dispatching a full-time guard rotation to American Apparel, for instance, DPS successfully curtailed theft from that location.

Rush said that 2010 “was a good year for crimes against people.” Although the numbers show an increase from 112 in 2009 to 121 in 2010, the change is due to the aggravated assaults of the November 2010 shooting, in which two carjackers engaged Penn Philadelphia Police officers on 40th and Locust streets with guns. “We did not see a trend of people being assaulted,” Rush said.

DPS felt that they had a successful year not only in fighting crime but also in their educating the Penn community. Just this year they gave around 500 presentations on safety to students, faculty and staff.

The premiere technological advance to the DPS in 2010 was the addition of Penn Guardian, a safety service that allows PennComm to “identify your GPS coordinates” DPS spokeswoman Stef Cella wrote in an e-mail. Although Rush could not yet comment on the entirety of DPS’ goals for 2011, promoting Penn Guardian “by running awareness campaigns” is a priority.

When asked to reflect upon the level of safety they felt on campus in 2010, most students agreed that they felt safe and did not feel more unsafe than in 2009.

The most strident complaint reflected the disappointment Penn students felt in not receiving the promised UPenn Alerts to their cell phones after incidents like the November shooting and this weekend’s juvenile assaults.

College sophomore Rebecca Hobble said, “We’re always told about stuff after the fact,” in reference to both of these incidents.

However, Brent Ginsberg, also a College sophomore, defended DPS decisions to withhold the texts on both accounts because “there’s no need to send any messages when it seems like the situation is under control — it just causes unnecessary stress.”

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