A friend and colleague of mine forwarded me CAMPUSWATCH #90 (RTF file), which is an email-based newsletter sent out by the Wayne State University police department. I didn’t reproduce it all here because it’s kind of long– if you click the link, you’ll download an RTF version of the email. But I’ll sum it up:
First, it includes a chart that both reports and compares over time the crimes on campus: one column reports crime stats for May 2007, while the other two report the same crimes January to May 2007 and January 2006 to May 2006. In other words, in one simple chart– albeit one with messed up tabs– you can see what’s happened and how that relates to crime over a period of time.
Second, it summarizes the crimes, giving more time to the more serious crimes of course. It would appear there was quite a rash of auto thefts on campus at WSU– 16 (!!) thefts or attempts. I can tell from the chart that a) that’s kind of high since there were only 12 cars reported stolen from January 2006 to May 2006, and b) auto thefts are on the rise on campus at Wayne State since there were 33 vehicle thefts/attempts from January 2007 to May 2007. The report also lists all the cars and locations of the stolen vehicles.
Third, it lists the arrests the WSUPD made during the month. And fourth, it has a discussion about what I guess is a new trend in thievery, stealing license plates and using them as a cover to then steal gasoline (I didn’t get it at first– you’ll have to read it in the report to get the whole story).
Now, there are a number of things I like about this newsletter that EMU can perhaps learn from. First, this message is coming from the WSUPD, not the WSU PR office. Second, in coming out in one email newsletter like this (presumably once a month), it offers a point of comparison and an opportunity to alert the community on criminal trends– e.g., be on the look-out for people trying to steal your license plates. And third, there is A LOT of detail here, much more detail than we tend to get on crime at EMU. For example, for each of the 16 vehicle thefts/attempts in May 2007, they list the date, location, and model of the vehicle (mostly Dodge and Jeep products, btw).
Personally, I find this up-front, honest, and data-rich report reassuring. I mean, it does indicate that crime is indeed a problem at Wayne State– if I taught there, I’d probably buy a club or something– but I find knowledge to be be empowering. I sure as heck would rather know what’s going on crime-wise than have it covered up.
Why can’t we do something like this here?
That is a very good attempt to keep the community informed. It certainly does not meet the requirements of the Clery Act (and I’m sure that they are attempting to do that with this), but does a good job of informing the community about what is going on. I am wondering if the point # (?) of the Fallon message about security that talks about a bi-weekly summary of incidents will look something like that. I think there is a little too much detail in some of it which could shorten the message a little if it were removed. They certainly were focused on auto thefts. Fortunately, EMU doesn’t have a high number of those. I think EMU would be much more focused on larcenies if they were putting out a similar email. I like the idea of it though.
I went to Wayne State in the 70s and lived in the Cass Corridor and nearby while going to school. Clearly, the area had a lot of crime, but it also had a huge amount of police protection. I seem to remember that the ratio of police to citizens was 1:20. Although there was crime (mostly mugging and b and e) on or near campus, I never felt worried, though I was careful. No matter where I went, there was cop nearby. Even then, we were informed via WSU announcements and the newspaper of any crimes in the area. I think EMU may want to consider adopting some of the measures WSU has in place.
Sitedad, I believe that something like this kind of daily crime report is indeed a requirement of the Clery Act.
On a related point — yesterday my sons and I attended the Tigers game at Comerica park (Tigers 5, Rangers 2, Kenny Rogers was great on the mound). I was wearing my EMU ball cap, and a nice lady sitting behind us asked me if I went to EMU. I said I worked there. She told me she’d graduated at EMU, but was appalled by how “they lied about that poor girl who was killed in her room.” She said her nice had decided not to go to EMU,but instead was going to “safe” campus, Wayne State.
She also told me that there was a column in The DETROIT NEWS about the case, and later I checked it out: Marney Rich Keehnan’s “On campus murder shouldn’t be kept a secret,” page E1, June 28, 2007. The column features an interview with Ms. Connie Clery, whose daughter’s memory is honored with the Clery Act of 1990, which EMU has violated for years. It is a nice column, fair and factual.
The EMU alumni lady and I chatted a bit about the game, and about EMU. She said it was a crime and a shame that nothing had yet been done to fix things at EMU.
A few years ago, my EMU hat would provoke comments every where about University House, now they are comments about a different, far worse, moral scandal at Eastern.
The article that Mark is talking about is “ On-campus murder shouldn’t be kept a secret.”
There is another one on the PR problem, authored by EMU student and sometimes Echo journalist, Amanda Hamon: “PR pro sees tarnish at EMU Poor image will linger, he predicts.”
There is yet another plea for Fallon to resign for the sake of our school, this time from the Saginaw News: “EMU paying price for silence.” It says that he and other administrators “sucker-punched the reputation of a fine university,” which are some pretty biting words. Fallon used to work at Saginaw Valley State University, and Saginaw seems relieved to have sent him here.
I put all of these links in this post to conserve space per the earlier requests of Eagle Talon and Wayne (if I remember right), but let me know if you would prefer them bound up together in a “round up� medley post of news.
There is no question that we should start doing the crime watch notices like they have at WSU. The first person I know of to suggest this kind of thing was a very welcome poster to emutalk, “learningGUY�: http://emutalk.org/?p=230. I have been trying to get this initiative through the Security Advisory Committee for the entire Winter term without any luck. Maybe now it will go through. It will do a great deal to address the concerns of people considering EMU for themselves or for their family members.
By the way, for all of the flack that Mr. MacMillian has been getting of late, I thought that his critique of Fallon’s security email was really well done. This initiative was one of the ones listed there, but it would never had been there had the media not pressured the administration to improve security (or seem to be doing so).
My daughter is at Wayne State and I too have seen their report. It is exactly as you describe it! I too don’t understand why we can’t have something like this distributed on campus.
Urzula