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(09/26/90 9:00am)
It is too early to tell if the city's hiring freeze, which includes the cancellation of the start of classes for 170 police recruits, will have any effect on police protection in the University area, a Philadelphia Police captain said Monday. Mayor Wilson Goode announced the freeze last week. He said that it will allow city officials more time to devise a financial resuce plan before the city runs out of money. Philadelphia Police Captain Richard DeLise said that the cancellation of the November and January recruit classes would not have any effect until April, since police training is a five-month program. October's class of 80 to 100 recruits will start as scheduled, he said. He added that an improvement in the city's financial picture could revive the classes. The freeze does not affect University Police. University Police spokesperson Sylvia Canada said that the force has hired more than 30 officers during the past year, and now totals 75 officers. Mobile patrol extends west to 43rd Street between Chestnut and Pine streets, Canada said. Jim McDevitt, vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said that while the city's force has grown, the FOP does not consider the current level to be a "totally safe level of manpower." "The police officers of the city of Philadelphia are good cops in spite of the system, not because of it," McDevitt said. The shortage of police has lead to problems for officers getting backup support on a crime scene. Without such support, officers can become more reluctant to take risks, he said. City Council member Lucien Blackwell said the freeze is necessary because the city failed to sell $375 million in short-term notes earlier this month. "We're being squeezed out of the money market by people who are playing politics with this administration," Blackwell said.
(09/26/90 9:00am)
University Police foiled two separate burglary attempts on the 3900 block of Baltimore Avenue within a half-hour period Monday. University Police spokesperson Sylvia Canada said police received calls from students living on the block at 1:30 and 2 p.m. reporting intruders in their houses. Police responded in time to catch the would-be burglars before they made their escape. The first caller told police he saw a man wearing jeans, a hat and a red flannel shirt on the second-floor roof attempting to pry open a barred window. When the student called police, the man left, but officers Dan Forsythe and John Wilye spotted him nearby. They stopped the suspect, Samuel H. Woldeselasie, 30, of 3922 Parrish Street, and brought him back to the house. After the student identified Woldeselasie as the intruder, police arrested him and charged him with attempted burglary. The second call was from a student several doors down who was reporting an intruder in her house. Canada said the student later told police she was in a second-floor bedroom and heard noises on the third floor. She told police she went up to check but found nothing. When she came back down she noticed that a door that had been open when she left was closed. She called police and waited outside. Officers Michael Fink and Forsythe responded and found Christopher Gilmore, 24, of 5341 Chancellor Street, standing in front of a bureau in the house with stolen stereo equipment bundled at his feet. Police arrested Gilmore and charged him with burglary. Canada said Gilmore was wanted by Philadelphia Police on three outstanding warrants, but added that she did not know what the other charges were.
(09/24/90 9:00am)
Philadelphia Police exchanged gunfire with two armed robbers outside the Wawa Food Market on the 3900 block of Walnut Street early Friday morning before chasing one man nine blocks through West Philadelphia. Two police officers surprised the suspects as they left the store at 4 a.m., and one robber shot at the officers and tried to escape to a stolen car they had left at 39th and Sansom streets. Police eventually arrested the gunman, but not until he led police on a high-speed car chase through West Philadelphia in a stolen car and ran down an innocent bystander. The other suspect escaped. One police officer suffered minor injuries in the chase but neither the suspects or police officers were hit during the gunfire. No students were involved in the incident. Canada said Philadelphia Police officers Kevin and James Godfrey, who are brothers, were driving a police van on Walnut Street just after 4 a.m. Friday when they noticed that the clerk inside Wawa had his hands in the air and one of the customers was holding a handgun. They drove past the store, and Officer James Godfrey stepped out of the van to wait for the robbers to come out. Canada said it is police policy to not interrupt armed robberies. She said it is safer for police to try to catch suspects when there are no innocent people in the way. Entering the store, she said, would have put the clerk in more danger. Canada said Friday that University Police were still waiting for a report from a private security guard who patrols the 3900 block of Walnut and watches other University-owned properties up to 43rd and Pine streets. Canada said the unarmed guard apparently did not witness the robbery or shooting. "That's not saying they weren't doing their job," she said. "They just weren't at Wawa at the time." When the two robbers left the store, James Godfrey ordered them to halt. The gunman, Mark McCrea, 26, of the 1600 block of 54th Street, immediately fired on him twice. Godfrey fired back and chased the robber north on 39th Street, firing three more times. The other suspect apparently escaped. Kevin Godfrey joined the chase in his van at 39th and Sansom streets. The gunman then fired at the van and the officer shot back. McCrea then drove west on Sansom Street in a car that had been stolen earlier in the night, and Godfrey and several other police officers chased him down the narrow street. Henderson, the injured man, had just stepped out of his wife's car on the 4800 block of Sansom when McCreas car plowed into him. The gunman lost control of his getaway car, which careened into several parked cars and flipped over. Apparently unhurt in the crash, McCrea climbed out of the wrecked car and fled on foot. Police spotted him minutes later near a housing development on the 400 block of Busti Street, where an officer fired at the suspect after a struggle. McCrea was eventually caught on 46th Street and Haverford Avenue by two more officers and charged with robbery, aggravated assault and resisting arrest. Several students living in the High Rises reported hearing gunshots from their rooms. Nursing junior Tracy Lawrence said she and a roommate were awakened by the shots and watched police corner the gunman at 39th and Sansom streets from their window. Police recovered some of the $150 stolen in the robbery in the overturned car. Police have not yet found the gun. Canada also said police seem to have followed proper procedure in chasing the suspect, even though the high-speed chase led to Henderson's injuries. She said city and University Police policies call for officers to pursue felons as long as they have the suspect in sight. Three years ago, the 39th to 40th and Walnut streets area became one of the most dangerous parts of campus. During the 1987-88 school year the block was the scene of a triple stabbing and a fatal shooting. A University student was shot the next year outside the movie theater on 40th Street. After quieting down for a while, the area is again being plagued by violent crime. Two Philadelphia men were killed and two more injured at 40th and Sansom streets September 1. Last weekend, a University student was shot just above the right eye with a BB or pellet gun.
(09/21/90 9:00am)
University Police arrested a West Philadelphia man Monday, moments after he threatened a local man with a gun and hit him three times with it near the Hill House dormitory at 34th and Walnut streets. Police spokesperson Sylvia Canada said the assailant struck the man with the gun in an apparent robbery attempt. The victim, a 29-year-old local man, was not seriously injured in the incident. The man reported the crime immediately to University Police, who tracked the assailant and arrested him four blocks away. Shortly after, the victim identified the suspect as Stacey Foster, 23, of 514 N. 39th St. Foster is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday on charges on aggravated assault. Canada said Foster and the victim were both walking west on Walnut Street toward 34th Street at about 9:50 p.m. when Foster slowed to let the man pass him. Canada said Foster pulled a semi-automatic handgun out and told the man to hand over his money. When the victim did not respond immediately, Foster struck him three times with the butt of the gun and then fled west on 34th Street, Canada said. After the victim notified police, dispatchers notified officers patrolling the area. University police first tried to stop Foster on the 3700 block of Walnut Street but he fled. Police caught him minutes later in the 7-11 convenience store on 38th and Sansom streets, where he had crouched in the aisle to avoid being spotted. Canada said although it appears the assailant intended to rob the victim, nothing was taken. The apparent attempted robbery comes almost a year to the day after an armed assailant robbed a University student and her boyfriend of a Toyota Celica in front of Hill House. According to witnesses, the assailant fired a gunshot into the are during the incident. University Police recommend that students immediately report any crimes, including specific details as possible. If police have descriptions of suspects, they will be able to catch them before they escape, police say.
(09/20/90 9:00am)
Thanks to an anonymous University graduate, 6400 students last year got the chance to forge better relationships with their often-distant professors -- and even sample some of their teachers cooking. For years, faculty members have invited groups of students to their homes to taste a home-cooked meal or chat over coffee. And in 1983, President Sheldon Hackney helped make those get-togethers a little easier -- and cheaper -- by establishing the President's Fund for Student-Faculty Interaction with an unrestricted gift from an anonymous donor. The fund provides teachers with money to entertain students for lunch, dinner, or a snack to the tune of $6 per student for dinner and $4 for lunch. But the money is not just for food -- professors have also used it for class presentations. Since 1983, faculty members have dipped into the fund 1507 times. Last year teachers set a record, using the fund 271 times -- $27,8449 worth. Faculty members may use the fund only once a semester. German professor Francis Brevart, who used the fund for a dinner with his students, said that his wife was so enthusiastic when he brought students home -- she treated them "as we treat kings" -- that he was forced to take them out to a restaurant instead. The closer relationship that developed between Brevart and his students as a result of these dinners brought immediate rewards in the classroom, the professor said. Knowing the students personally "made work in the classroom pleasant," and students began to speak out in class and attend more office hours. "This is unkown at my other universities," said Brevart, who has also taught in Canada and Germany. "I speak to other colleagues, and these programs don't exist." "I never had this when I studied -- they were gods and we were the rabble," he added. Student Life Director Francine Walker said that the "major users" of the fund are those professors with relatively small classes. Walker said that hundreds of faculty members entertain students on a personal level, but not all of them use the fund. She said the fund supports faculty members who had been bringing students into their homes for years, but often found the cost prohibitive. She said that last year an equal number of graduate and undergraduate students benefited from the fund. Last fall, Law School Dean Colin Diver invited his first-year Torts class -- 110 students -- to his home for a catered dinner. He said programs such as the President's Fund, which reimbursed him $660 for the event, help release some of the anxiety that first-year law students often feel. "The first year can be a scary experience," Diver said. The Law School dean said that many law professors entertain small groups of students. (****EDS NOTE - CORRECTION - Professor should be Paul Korshin) English professor Howard Kaufold said he entertains students several times each year, although he can use the fund only once. Kaufold hosted a lunch last May during Peak Week for his students from the last 25 years. Kaufold, who teaches Madness in Literature, has in the past invited his entire lecture class to a reception, and even invites large classes to his home. "A barbeque is a good idea," Kaufold said. "I always do the cooking. Heaven knows they all eat it." Entertaining students is a two-way street for Kaufold, who said that students often reciprocate by taking him out to lunch. "I get booked up to six weeks," said Kaufold. He said he eats a Reuben sandwich almost every day during the term. Kaufold said that former Education Secretary William Bennett criticized the program when he visited the University calling it frivolous and a way for professors to fraudulantly earn extra money. He said the $6 per student for dinner "doesn't cover a whole lot," but "it gives a respectable reimbursement."
(09/14/90 9:00am)
Two University students were robbed at gunpoint in broad daylight Wednesday and a Drexel University student was held up at gunpoint early Thursday morning in two possibly related incidents. University Police said the two students, one of whom was a senior, reported that they were walking on the 3900 block of Pine Street at about 3:40 p.m. when two adult males approached them. The students said the men each pulled small black handguns, probably .22 caliber or smaller, and told them to hand over their wallets. After the men took the wallets, they forced the students to lie down on the sidewalk. After frisking the students twice, the men fled on foot toward 40th Street. University Police spokesperson Sylvia Canada said the students reported losing several credit cards, University identification cards, drivers' licenses and other documents. The students immediately reported the incident in person to University Police but police did not make any arrests. Canada said police have no suspects. Canada said the students described one of the men as about 6'1" tall, weighing about 180 pounds and wearing shorts and a light T-shirt. The other man was described as about 5'9" tall and 160 pounds, wearing dark clothing. Police said the robbery of the Drexel student occured at 3:07 a.m. on the 300 block of South 40th Street. Canada said the student was walking alone when a man threatened him with a small handgun and tried to pull him into an alley. Canada said the student told police the man said "This is a robbery, don't make it a murder," before robbing him of $50 to $60. The man, described as being about 5'10" with a thin build. He was wearing tan pants and a tan shirt and had a moustache. Canada said the two holdups may be related since both were committed with small, black handguns. She said police have no suspects in either case and do not know of any other connections. University Police have responded to a total of four armed robberies within the past week. Last weekend, a group of five men on foot and on bicycles robbed several students and local residents at gunpoint in the 40th to 41st Street area. Canada said the weekend attacks are not neccessarily related to the ones last week. The Pine Street robbery distinguishes itself from the others because it occurred in a well-traveled area during daylight hours. Canada stressed that walking in groups and avoiding walking at night can cut down the risk of crime. She said the victims in both of the recent incidents behaved properly by cooperating with their assailants. "I was glad to see the students didn't do anything that would cause them further harm," she said. "The did the right thing by cooperating with the subjects because they had weapons." Canada also said reporting the incidents immediately was also important. She said even though police were unable to make arrests in these cases, early reporting of crimes makes it possible for police to watch for subjects fleeing the area or attempting to commit other crimes.
(09/07/90 9:00am)
Senior Vice President Marna Whittington will appoint a police official within the next two weeks who will replace the University Police director as the top safety officer on campus. The new "police commissioner" will oversee the University Police Department and coordinate security efforts across campus. Over the past year, Whittington has coordinated a massive increase in the size of the University Police Department and the area that it covers. Under the new configuration, Director John Logan will run the department's day-to-day business, but the commissioner will take over Whittington's policy-making role for the department. The commissioner will oversee the police, the victim support department and a group of security guards who Whittington said will be hired this fall. "I am hoping that this person will take over some of the things that I have done," Whittington said. "I look to this person to lead the effort that we outlined in the spring." Whittington said last night all the finalists she interviewed were from outside the University, and she plans to name the commissioner by next week. The search was conducted by a professional recruiting company, and Whittington said that applications came from across the country. Logan declined to comment about the new commissioner position yesterday. The new commissioner will take over a police department that has undergone drastic upheaval in the past year. Since last September, the department has hired 31 officers and now boasts a staff of 75, department spokesperson Sylvia Canada said Wednesday. It has five new patrol cars and plans for a new headquarters at 40th and Walnut streets. Even the department's name has changed from the "Department of Public Safety" to suggest a new, more-professional image. The commissioner will also have to help renegotiate the officers' contract when the current pact expires next summer. Two years ago, a month-long strike split officers from Logan and the University administration after the University refused to make the union contract comparable with Philadelphia Police pay. Canada said that although the officers know that a commissioner will be hired, they have not been told how it will affect them. "I understand there is going to be a lot of reorganizing," Canada said. "They [the officers] have an idea things are happening, but they don't know what." The commissioner will oversee a new department of University security guards who will replace private guard services, Whittington said. Currently, at least four firms patrol campus, and Whittington said the University will begin a pilot program in the animal laboratories, the University Museum and the School of Arts and Sciences. "This would allow us control of who is hired, [including] qualifications and background checks, and it would also give us direct supervision," Whittington said. In the past, the security guard company that covers the residences has come under fire for hiring a guard with a criminal record and having guards fall asleep on the job.
(09/07/90 9:00am)
The University Police Department will move to a new headquarters in a high-rise parking complex now planned for at 40th and Walnut streets if a plan being discussed by administrators is approved. Within the past year, the department has almost doubled its number of officers, and spokesperson Sylvia Canada said Wednesday that the current headquarters, a converted Superblock house, can barely hold the 70-officer force. "We can't renovate any longer in this building," Canada said. "We have nowhere to go. We can't hire another person." Under the current plan, the police headquarters would be on the first floor of a multi-level University parking garage. Canada said the department would not vacate the Locust Walk house until January 1993 at the earliest. Senior Vice President Marna Whittington said yesterday administrators began planning the garage, which would be built on the current site of a parking lot, partially because construction of the campus center will eliminate hundreds of parking spots at 36th Street. The new building may include holding cells, a shooting range, conference rooms and a gymnasium, all items the department cannot fit in its current home, Canada said. The area around 40th and Walnut streets has become infamous because of crimes near the corner. Last weekend two men were killed and two other wounded by gunmen carrying automatic weapons at 40th and Sansom streets. Canada said that putting a police station next to the intersection would be an added bonus. "When you have a police department there, you have a visible presence permanently," Canada said. "That is a deterrent."
(09/06/90 9:00am)
Philadelphia Police are still looking for suspects or motives in a shooting that left two local youths dead and two others wounded early Sunday morning at the corner of 40th and Sansom streets. According to Philadelphia Police homicide detective Henry Spencer, the four youths left the AMC Walnut 3 Theaters on the 3900 block of Walnut Street at about midnight. They were about to drive away in a car when three or four gunmen sprayed the car with automatic weapons fire and then fled on foot, Spencer said. Police recovered at least 15 casings from nine-millimeter bullets at the scene. One of the four victims attempted to flee the scene after he was shot but collapsed on the sidewalk in front of the Burger King restaurant at 40th and Walnut streets. No students were injured in the attack. Spencer said police have questioned several witnesses to the incident, all of whom said the gunmen did not speak to the victims before shooting. "They just walked up and opened fire," Spencer said. Killed in the shooting were Darren Norwood, 19, and Terrence Ryan, 18. Craig Dunston, 16, was treated and released from the emergency room Sunday morning. Aaron Porter, 18, is listed in satisfactory condition at HUP. Police said all four are residents of West Philadelphia but would not give street addresses. Homicide Sergeant John Finn said some or all of the four victims have "had police contact" in the past but declined to say if any had ever been arrested or charged with any crimes. Spencer said police are "optimistic" they will find the assailants but said they have not recovered the weapons and have only vague descriptions of the gunmen. The suspects are described as black males between the ages of 18 and 25. Finn said speculation that the killings were drug or gang-related is premature. "That's not what we're getting," he said. Spencer said police have only questioned Dunston about the shooting. He said they also spoke to the victims' families but still have few leads. But according to Bob Stern, a representative for several stores along the 3900 block of Walnut, an officer at the scene of the crime said the shooting was a retaliation by the Junior Black Mafia for another shooting last week in Germantown. Stern said he was told the events were drug-related. Some former residents of Sansom Street have reported seeing drug transactions on the street and finding crack vials on the block. Most of these complaints were not reported to University Police. University Police spokesman Sylvia Canada said yesterday that the block is not considered a prime area for drug trade but said drug sales are a reality of city life. University police responded to the shooting but are not investigating it. The shooting occurred directly in front of St. Joseph Church, at the corner of 40th and Sansom. Several students said blood stains were still clearly visible on the sidewalk when churchgoers arrived for Sunday morning services. The 40th Street area has been one of the campus' most dangerous areas over the past few years. Three students were stabbed at the corner of 40th and Walnut Streets in the fall of 1987, one critically. A local youth was shot to death outside of the McDonald's restaurant at that intersection that winter. Another University student was shot outside of the Eric 3 On The Campus Theater on 40th Street in 1988.
(04/18/90 9:00am)
At least 20 women at the University were raped by acquaintances this academic year, according to Victim Support Services Director Ruth Wells. Other security officials and administrators declined to give specific rape statistics, but representatives of Students Together Against Aquaintance Rape and the Women's Center said that they are aware of even more than the 20 reported incidents. But none of those reported cases show up on University Police records as "forcible rapes" during the last three years, according to state crime statistics released this year. Women's Center Director Elena DiLapi said that as many rapes were reported to her office in the first semester of this year as were reported to her office during all of last year. Officials involved in security and women's issues attribute the rise in incidents to an increase in reporting. Nationwide an average of less than 10 percent of rapes and attempted rapes are reported. Student Health Educator Susan Villari said Monday that more than 10 percent of the women at the University who are victims of sexual assaults are seeking out support resources. College junior Anne Siegle, one of the co-founders of STAAR said Monday that at practically all of the almost 60 workshops STAAR has conducted this year, someone has come up to the peer educator after the presentation to ask about resources for themselves or for a friend who has been the victim of a sexual assault. "That is a ridiculously low number considering that one in every four women is the victim of rape or attempted rape," Siegle said yesterday. "That just doesn't cut it." In a population the size of the University, according to these figures, an estimated 3750 women will be the victims of an attempted sexual assault within their lifetimes. Siegle emphasized however that not all of these statistics are the result of incidents that happen to women at the University. Many, she said, happened to women in high school. Last year, DiLapi said that 12 incidents of acquaintance rape were reported to her office. That was an increase of more than 50 percent over the reports during the 1987-1988 academic year. As reports of acquaintance rapes to University support services seem to increase, officials and students involved in security and women's issues are calling on top administrators to take a more vocal stance against sexual assault. They said this month that improved campus security for women and an environment where women feel comfortable reporting sex crimes are only possible if officials acknowledge the problem and take action to prevent further crimes. DiLapi said this month that at a STAAR program held for administrators and faculty, only four men -- none of whom were from the highest level of administration -- were present. And what she says is a lack of acknowledgment of crimes against women results in a dearth of resources for prevention, DiLapi said. She added that her office would like to do more outreach and education, but workers are forced to concentrate their efforts on crisis intervention. "If I am constantly putting out fires, how am I going to do fire prevention?" DiLapi asked. DiLapi said that as many rapes were reported to her office in the first semester of this year as were reported to her office last year. Officials attributed the increased number to a greater number of reports, not an increased number of acquaintance rape incidents. And while women's advocates say the administration must take a more vocal role in preventing crime against women, they also commend support service officials for providing resources that are vital to preventing and coping with crime against women. · According to officials and students involved in security and women's issues, women often face insensitivity or harrassment when they try to prevent or recover from being the victims of crime. And they say that because women more often fall victim to certain kinds of harrassment, rape and sexual assault, they face greater security risks than men. Student Health Educator Villari said this week that although her office does not compile figures on crimes against women her "gut feeling is that women get victimized more." "We can assume that violence is happening all the time," Women's Center Director DiLapi said. "On party nights it may be happening at a higher rate." Officials report that the number of crimes against women on and around campus is similar to the national average. And studies show that women are the overwhelming victims of sex-related crimes. A study sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health conducted on 32 college campuses found that one in every four women were victims of rape or attempted rapes. Additionally, college-age women are at a greater risk, studies say. The NIMH study said that the average age of both rape victims and perpetrators is 18-and-one-half years old. Additionally, college-age students are at a particular risk for crime in general, and because of denial, Ivy League students may be at a greater risk. "There is some feeling that 'Ivy League students don't rape' or 'Ivy League students don't get raped,' Siegle said. "That's a big myth to dispell." · Despite increased awareness and reporting of sex crimes, a stigma still exists around those who survive a sexual assault, officials say. "People look at a rape survivor as someone who is dysfunctional -- and that is ridiculous," Siegle said. And the results of insensitivity can be devastating for a survivor, officials say. "When it's a crime against the person, particulary a sex-related crime, because of how society views or does not view these crimes, women are more traumatized," Wells said. Wells and Villari said women's recovery after a sexual assault is sometimes hindered by the mixed reactions from friends and family. "One person can throw off 100 people saying they are supportive of you," Villari said. University Police spokesperson Sylvia Canada said this month that women are also more often the victims of "harrassment by communication" which includes crank phone calls or letters. These crimes can also be reported as use of terroristic threats. University Police had 99 reports of harrassment by communication last year on-campus. The police also received 11 reports of terroristic threats on-campus last year and 27 reports of general harrassment. · Several resources are available at the University and in the surrounding community for people who are the victims of crime. Support systems to aid victims of crime in general were set up in the 1970s and '80s. Resources for women in particular were set up in response to six rapes on or around campus during one week in 1973. The Women's Center provides counseling, information, advocacy, and referral services for women. In addition to many other services, they currently offer a support group for victims of acquaintance rape. University Police Victim Support Services provides similar services and is specially equipped to guide women crime victims through the judicial process if they decide to press charges against the perpetrator. Students Together Against Acquaintance Rape, which is a little more than a year old, was founded to raise awareness, teach prevention techniques and provide education, support, and advocacy in the University community about acquaintance rape.
