Letter to campus security directors

To: Big 12 campus security directors

My name is Tom Karst, graduate of K-State and trade journalist living in the Kansas City region. As some of you may know, I have a blog about campus security. As a service to targeted readers - parents and students - I address issues of campus crime and security polices.

Please assist with me in periodic surveys about security polices. Your responses will be noted and published in my blog posts about campus security at Big 12 universities. If you are not authorized to speak on behalf of your university, please pass my email on to the appropriate communications people at your university and have them email me in a timely way. Thanks!

Survey: Please respond by June 6

1. How can students and parents find out about campus crime statistics at your school? (Please provide Web link)

2. Where can students and parents finds recent daily campus police logs at your school? (Please provide Web link)

3. Does your university have a stated policy on illegal alcohol and drug use? If so, what is your policy?

4.What the single most important factor in the ability of students to avoid being victimized by personal and property crimes at your school?

5. Do your security officers carry weapons? Does your university have a stated position on concealed carry by students or faculty?

6. What's the single most significant change to campus/residence hall security policies or procedures in the past five years? Please provide a link or email any helpful powerpoint presentations on student security,if possible.

Best regards

Tom Karst
Campus Security Blog
tckarst@gmail.com

Crime kits at UW

From Seattle, a story about crime kits at the University of Washington:

SEATTLE - A rash of violent attacks around the University of Washington this year has prompted some students to take matters into their own hands.

As part of an entrepreneurship class, four UW students created and are now selling "W Defense" - a safety kit with police-grade pepper spray and a whistle. "Our name and our slogan that we have is that everyone deserves to have a safe night out," said Skye Potter. Some students will tell you several high-profile attacks in and around campus have rocked their sense of security. In January, a young female student was bludgeoned with a hammer when she went to move her car. The four UW students saw a business opportunity.

"We knew there was a need for it," said Jordan Reynolds. "We also knew we can make a positive impact on our community. So it's a win-win for us." As part of a project for a business class, four UW students are selling safety kits containing whistles and pepper spray.
"At the end of the quarter, depending on our profitability, we’re gonna kinda re-evaluate things to see how we can move forward," Reynolds said.

If studying abroad....

From a blog about education, the risks of studying abroad..

Tip: the biggest safety risk for US students abroad is going out together with a group of other American students. Yesterday, while doing errands in my neighborhood, I saw a group of American college students sitting together at a cafe. There were about eight of them, and they had that just-landed look. They had to be students at the local university, here as part of a program (lots of those here). I was a few tables away, but couldn’t help noticing what was going on around the students. What they didn’t see were the two guys across the street eyeing them, the four friends sitting at the table next to them talking about the purses the girls were carrying, or the two businessmen next to me discussing the two iPhones two of the guys were playing with. You see, there’s nothing more conspicuous than a group of American students abroad, and if there are those looking for an easy target, well, the groups are the best bet–they’re distracted, they’re speaking English loudly, they are carrying way more than they need, and they aren’t being careful about their cameras or watches or whatever. (Even if someone has bothered to tell them how to behave here, they have a false sense of security because they are always surrounded by other Americans.) I’m not saying that any of my Argentine neighbors had any ill intentions–just that the students were oblivious to the fact that others around them were definitely noticing them and talking about them. And that’s usually not a good thing. At all.
I’ve interviewed nearly 200 students who have studied abroad, and groupers have a FAR higher rate of experiencing crime (theft) than the indies. Anyway. More on this in the book, but suffice it say that those who are paying top dollar for the packages because they think it’s safer need to wake up and see that being a conspicuous American student abroad–in a group of others–is far more dangerous than connecting with locals and learning how to blend in as an indie. So, yeah. Not really recommending the group plans for a number of reasons, but I’m happy to hear your comments.

You can't fight Anderson Hall

But I did try to get clarification on the editing of police logs - why one can retrieve some complete electronic versions of the police log from more than a year ago by using the archive function of the file list, while police logs from 2006, for example, are not available in unedited versions. I asked this to Cheryl May at KSU.

Dear Mr. Karst,

I have investigated your recent inquiry related to two issues:

1) whether electronic versions of the police log for 2-15-06 to 2-30-06
are available;

and

2) why some information is blotted out on your copies.

After speaking with the university's attorneys, I have learned that the
electronic records you are seeking are not available to the public.

The police department's current e-mail versions of the police log are
edited, in the same way that the hard copy versions you received are
edited. These older files have not been edited and so have information
that would need to be deleted before they could be given to you.

Edited copies of the February 2006 logs are not available.

By providing hard copies, the university has complied with the Open
Records Act. The information which was redacted is not public
information.

I will make note in the file that you are displeased with the hard
copies and would prefer an electronic copy.

Cheryl May
Assistant Vice President for University Relations/
Director, Media Relations
Kansas State University


----------------------------------------------------------


I responded:


Cheryl,

Cheryl, can you tell me when this editing of the police log began? What types of information has been redacted from the police log, particularly?

I would like to appeal this interpretation. Who would be my contact for this appeal?

I question whether this editing is more than a convenient excuse to deny me access to the complete police log. For example, this listing is from (a recent police log), less than a month ago.

(ROOM NUMBER IS LISTED IN POLICE LOG) PUTNAM HALL

(NAME IS LISTED IN POLICE LOG) ADVISED SHE WAS AN ASSAULT VICTIM A FEW DAYS AGO. WHEN SHE ARRIVED AT HER DORM ROOM TONIGHT, SHE NOTICED A

DISTURBING NOTE ON HER DOOR. SHE TURNED IT INTO HER RESIDENT ADVISOR. DISPATCHED SGT. MILLINGTON TO SPEAK WITH HER.

04/17/08 21:31 21:33 21:33 21:33 OTHER ALARM P D08002589 031A

Cheryl, I ask you if any "editing" was done on that version of the police log, which was emailed to me and dozens of others. If I was Ms. (NAME OMITTED), I would not be happy in the least that this "edited" police log was released to the public. Please advise where I can appeal this interpretation.

Tom Karst





-----------------------

Finally...

Mr. Karst,

In response to your latest inquiries, we have provided you with all the
information we are permitted to give. There are no further steps within
the university for appeal.

Our policy regarding the Open Records Act is here:
http://www.k-state.edu/policies/ppm/3060.html

And fyi, K.S.A. 45-218(e) states: "The custodian may refuse to provide
access to a public record, or to permit inspection, if a request places
an unreasonable burden in producing public records or if the custodian
has reason to believe that repeated requests are intended to disrupt
other essential functions of the public agency."

Cheryl May
Assistant Vice President for University Relations/
Director, Media Relations
Kansas State University


---------------------------------------

TK: I hope the University has informed the individual listed in my example of the breach of privacy in the police log. Whether new editing rules are in place or not, it does not make sense to list the name of an assault victim in the police log. I find the University's rules on providing redacted police logs from the past self-serving and arbitrary - especially in view that current rules of editing police logs appears to be inconsistent.

Guns on the Christian campus

From the AP:

Mich. Christian college to let some safety personnel carry guns

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — Calvin College this fall will allow safety personnel with a police background to carry handguns on campus over the protest of some students at the private Christian school.

College trustees approved the use-of-force policy after a lengthy question-and-answer session about the rules, said Bastian Knoppers, chairman of the 30-member board.

"The board was very satisfied at the homework the college had done in putting together this detailed policy," he said.

The policy was put in place partly in response to last year's mass shooting at Virginia Tech.

About 60 students shouting "community, not weaponry" protested on the Calvin College campus last month after the Faculty Senate approved the safety department recommendation to allow trained officers to carry guns. The protesters argued campus crime is low and more student comment was needed.

"We are a Christian college and Jesus gave us an example of nonviolence," Joseph Breems, a junior from Marino Valley, Calif., said at the time.

Only three of the department's 43 officers have the police background the policy requires, but one is virtually always on duty, college officials said. All other guns are banned from campus.

Calvin College is a private, four-year institution affiliated with the Christian Reformed Church.

Marquette: what the heck is going on?

From a blog post by GOP3.com, published by a group of Marquette students:

I don’t know if I ever did a “what the heck is going on with the chronology of the kidnappings” GOP3 post, but it really, really bothers me that the two individuals who were kidnapped earlier this semester were taken around midnight, the first discovered a couple hours after that and then the second a little after dawn, and no email was sent to students until 9am or 10am that morning, despite the fact that another student had been violently robbed and I would assume in contact with DPS/MPD beforehand and despite the fact that the freaking suspects were still at large!

We just got another email from DPS about another mid-afternoon robbery on campus:

An off-campus robbery within the 900 block of North 17th Street was reported to the Department of Public Safety at approximately 4 p.m. on Wednesday, May 21. During the incident, two male suspects approached the victim, a Marquette student. One suspect displayed a weapon and demanded personal property. The descriptions of the two male suspects were not specific. The victim was not physically injured.

The Department of Public Safety and Milwaukee Police Department officers were contacted and immediately responded to the scene. Victim services were offered to the student involved in this incident.

So, at 9:41pm tonight the Department of Public Safety thought it important to get out an email to students about a brazen daytime robbery basically in the middle of campus that includes armed suspects still at large. Wouldn’t it be prudent to inform students about at-large armed suspects sooner than six hours after a robbery, particularly one as bold as during the middle of the afternoon?

I ask this in all seriousness. We’re all aware that DPS has the capability of sending out text messages to students in the case of a “real” emergency (”Virginia Tech-style emergency” is the phrase that has been thrown about, I think). Obviously if someone is in Wehr Physics waving around a sidearm, a text message should be sent. But, I don’t understand why text messages are not being sent to students about crimes committed in the non-academic parts of campus.

Besides the near-rape of the Freshman girl by a homeless guy in the first-floor female bathroom of Raynor my Freshman year (Fall of 2003), there hasn’t been a major crime that I can remember happening on the academic portion of campus. Crime happens on Kilbourne, on Michigan, etc. If a crime is quickly resolved with suspects detained then yes, I think an email hours after suffices. But if two armed suspects rob students in the middle of the day, I think it makes sense to alert the student body sooner than six hours after it happens whether through email or texting.

The above email was seven sentences. Would it be that hard to get that out at 5pm or even 6pm? I’m concerned because if someone is able to get away with this during the middle of the day, it isn’t beyond the realm of possibility that they would return, and potentially soon thereafter. Look at what happened at Virginia Tech — two homicides, and then two hours later 30 more homicides. It is possible for one or more criminals to strike, wait and then strike later.

Hoaxes on the rise

From a Canadian Web site:


US campus crime hoaxes on the rise: Media attention and campus alert systems established in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre may have a hand in a recent jump in false crime reports on US college campuses. In the last six months, there have been at least 9 false crime reports nationwide. For example, shortly after the highly-publicized testing of an emergency alert system at UNC Chapel Hill, a student made a false claim he was attacked by an armed man in a robbery attempt. "For some people, it's attention-seeking. For others, it's revenge. For still others, it's the feeling of power they get by watching a college campus react." North Carolina News & Observer