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Despite receiving eight public safety alerts throughout the academic year about campus-area crimes ranging in severity from automobile break-ins to a stabbing at a fraternity house, over 95 percent of Tufts students feel safe on campus, according to the results of a recent survey by the Department of Public and Environmental Safety.
Instead of making permanent changes to Tufts' approach to public safety, the Department of Public and Environmental Safety and the Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) have focused of late on increasing awareness and education within the community.
University officials blamed the majority of this past year's crimes around campus on Tufts' setting in the middle of a densely populated greater community.
Crimes committed against students this year included three armed robberies, an assault, an attempted robbery and a stabbing. Students also received multiple notifications about automobile break-ins on campus, including a number in the Lower Campus Garage.
Aside from the break-ins and the stabbing outside the Delta Upsilon (DU) fraternity, all crimes occurred outside the periphery of the Medford campus, within a block or two of the university's borders. Members of the Tufts community learned about these crimes via public safety alerts e-mailed out and posted around campus.
Additionally, students were alerted to two crimes in the area that did not involve Tufts students - an armed robbery at a local convenience store and a robbery and sexual assault at gunpoint in East Somerville.
The incidents do not indicate a rise in crime at Tufts, according to Senior Director of Public Safety John King, who heads the Department of Public and Environmental Safety. "I don't think it's a trend," he said. "It's always going to be a situation when members of our community need to be aware that now and then a criminal activity can occur, but the campus itself and the neighborhoods surrounding this campus tend to be very safe places." He called the DU stabbing particularly anomalous.
TUPD Captain Mark Keith said that the biggest change his department made this year in response to crimes involved increasing staffing in response to certain incidents and during peak times when crimes are most likely to occur - including the first six weeks of the fall semester and the last six to eight weeks of the spring semester, when activity in and around campus spikes in general.
"I think a lot of these incidents may have occurred around the same time we may have increased spending anyway," he said. The force focuses on the period from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m., Keith added, during which it increases patrols.
In addition, TUPD continues to work together with local police departments in Somerville and Medford. Crimes that occur on the Tufts campus often fall in line with regional trends, as was the case with the rise in GPS thefts from automobiles this year.
Keith, who has worked at TUPD for 19 years, said the overall crime rate on campus actually decreased this year, and that idiosyncratic incidents caused students alarm.
"There have been a few incidents that have occurred either on or adjacent to campus that aren't the norm," he said. "I'm talking about ... the robberies we had occur [and] the stabbing that occurred in the spring. Those are incidents that are not normal. [I am] hoping it's ... just an unusual occurrence that won't happen again going forward."
Keith also noted that in a couple of the incidents, suspects have been apprehended with TUPD's help, as in the case of the stabbing.
No additional blue safety-light phones or lighting were added to campus this year, aside from some improvements to lighting at the Tufts Administration Building on Holland Street in Somerville. Nearly 100 blue-light phones, which help students contact TUPD in emergency situations, are scattered around campus and are marked by glowing bulbs. King and Keith both said that they believe current coverage is adequate.
Every year, Tufts Community Union (TCU) senators join members of the administration and representatives from TUPD on the Safety Walk across campus. The event's purpose is to identify areas on campus where public safety can be improved.
In November, senators participating in the walk suggested adding more lighting in the area between Sophia Gordon Hall and Professors Row, as well as improving pedestrian safety near the Aidekman Arts Center.
"The lighting, we've increased over the years, and some of that has been a result of the Safety Walk, and others have been just because of crime prevention surveys and observations we've made," King said.
Freshman Katy Simon, a TCU senator, said that no blue-light phones are located between Cousens Gym and the Memorial Steps aside from one at Halligan Hall far from the sidewalk.
King said that the university cannot install blue-light phones off campus or improve lighting there.
Public safety survey
"Tufts is a very safe campus ... The feedback that we have is pretty positive," King said, referencing a public safety survey his department e-mailed to students on Feb. 4. The survey asked students to rate how certain factors affect how safe they feel on campus.
33.4 percent of respondents said that the frequency of patrols made them feel very safe, and 59.6 percent said the patrols made them feel safe.
"That does suggest that the frequency of patrols does affect the feeling of safety on campus," King said.
Of the poll's 2,100 respondents, 27.4 percent said police officers' training made them feel very safe, and 67.4 percent said the training made them feel safe; 26.3 percent said that illumination provided by public lighting made them feel very safe, and 54.4 percent said that it made them feel safe. 23.4 percent said the prevalence of blue-light phones on campus made them feel very safe, and 61.4 percent said it made them feel safe.
With regard to Tufts Emergency Medical Services, 35.1 percent of students said the service made them feel very safe, and 60.0 percent said it made them feel safe.
The other two options for the questions were "unsafe" and "very unsafe."
18.8 percent of respondents said that panic buttons located in building lobbies made them feel very safe, and 67.7 percent said the buttons made them feel safe.
5.4 percent of respondents said that the fact that the campus is open to visitors made them feel very safe, and 60.5 percent said it made them feel safe.
"Obviously people have a feeling that an open campus can lend itself to individuals coming to campus that may not be necessarily directly involved in the Tufts community," King said.
King also said that his department has learned that the best ways to reach students are by e-mail and text messaging.
Earlier this year, a female undergraduate was approached by a man with a knife at the intersection of Packard Avenue and Powderhouse Boulevard while she was walking home at around 1 a.m. on the morning of March 7. The student, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation, said that she was happy with TUPD's work in reacting to the incident.
"I've been really satisfied," she said. "They did ... information gathering and gave it to the Somerville Police ... they have offered to drive me to the courthouse, they've provided a conference room for me to meet with the district attorney. They've been very helpful."
But the student said that the incident left her shaken. "I don't feel as safe on campus, but that's just a byproduct that ... was bound to happen," she said.
Max Kardon, a first-year graduate student at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, saw the assault occurring that night. He intervened with a friend and was subsequently robbed at knifepoint. The suspect then fled, but Somerville Police arrested Somerville resident Robert Galatis, 29, on March 10, charging him with the armed robbery.
Kardon agreed that the university dealt with the crime well. "I was happy with the way TUPD responded," he said. "The TUPD were really helpful. The Somerville Police ... didn't have the resources to go after it the way TUPD did."
Still, he said he thought that Tufts' location contributed to crime.
"I'm certainly more wary when I'm walking down the street," he said. "There's more crime than I had anticipated ... I'm a little bit surprised ... but I'm pretty comfortable
with it."
Freshman Jan Fouad said he feels secure at all times when walking around campus, but said the surrounding areas give him pause. "In general, I feel safe being on campus," he said. "But I feel that if I step off campus in the middle of the night, I would not feel comfortable."
Junior Terri Harding echoed those sentiments. "I feel like certain areas ... off-campus [are] a little less safe, but generally on-campus is safe," she said.
Harding said that she has utilized the campus safety escort service about five times during her time at Tufts. "I think it's a good service," she said. "I don't think enough people use it."
Matt Gannon, a sophomore, said that if students take precautions, they should feel safe. "I've never felt really unsafe on campus," he said, adding that students should "walk in groups off campus."
Escort service
TUPD has recently received a "marked increase" in requests for escorts, Keith said. The department often sees spikes in requests after public safety alerts regarding high-profile crimes.
In fall 2006, there were 34 requests compared to 479 requests in spring 2006. Keith attributed that semester's spike in requests to the sexual assault incidents in the Hillside neighborhood at the time.
Last semester, there were 663 requests. This semester, there were 779 by the end of April.
In the February public safety survey, 31.8 percent of respondents said they were very familiar with the service, while 56.8 percent said they were somewhat familiar with it.
TCU senators passed a resolution on March 9 that called on TUPD to expand the escort service's scope, advertise it better and generally make the service more accessible to students. The resolution focused in particular on students calling for help from off campus, and it was introduced by this past year's TCU President Neil DiBiase, a junior, in response to complaints and firsthand experience he had with the service.
The resolution, which passed unanimously and provides non-binding recommendations to Tufts officials, also suggested improvements to lighting off campus, a possible expansion of the blue safety-light phone system and increased TUPD patrols.
After meeting with DiBiase, a number of other senators and Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman, King said he became aware of a failure in communication between his department and the student government.
"No one in public safety management had received complaints about the escort service," King said. "There's a bit of a disconnect here."
DiBiase agreed. "Because ... Public Safety isn't necessarily hearing student concerns as much as the Senate is, it's ... the Senate's role to relay those concerns" to the department, he said.
To remedy this situation, a representative from Public Safety will serve as a liaison to the Senate next year, attending all meetings and making himself available to senators. In addition, incoming TCU President Duncan Pickard, a sophomore, will meet regularly with representatives from the department.
"We're going to make sure that the Senate regularly reports the issues back to Public Safety," said DiBiase, who is not serving on the body next year.
"We're always looking for ways to improve the service and expand the program," Keith said. He said that TUPD will be educating its officers on policies related to the service and explore methods to advertise the service to students. In addition, he said TUPD will make rules regarding transport between off-campus housing clearer.
Another concern students have brought up is the lack of escorts available when they are needed most, particularly after violent crimes occur.
King said that TUPD has worked to address the issue and that "the overwhelming majority of the time" there is enough staffing and it is not a problem.
"When something happens around campus, the number of requests [goes] up, and we try to address that by having more staff on hand," he said. "That's not to say a safety escort might not be provided ... the safety escort might just have to wait half an hour ... as long as the person is in a place where at the moment they're safe and secure and can wait a bit ... we can still provide that service."
At the end of most public safety alerts TUPD sent to the Tufts community this year, the department urged students to call for TUPD campus safety escorts,.
Stolen Macs
TUPD officers recently ran a sting operation to catch two individuals who were allegedly selling computers stolen from Tufts students on Craigslist.com, a popular classifieds Web site, King said.
The police arrested two Somerville brothers, ages 21 and 15, in the beginning of May for stealing two Apple computers from a fraternity house. King declined to name the fraternity involved due to the ongoing investigation, noting that other items were stolen from the fraternity.
TUPD officers identified the alleged thieves by posing as potential buyers requesting information about the Craigslist listings of the computers.
"TUPD made the arrest with the assistance and cooperation of the Somerville Police Department," King said.
