As students prepare for finals, Public Safety and Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy (CAPS) prepare to address concerns over student and campus safety.
About 20 students attended the quarterly CAPS meeting, held in the Lincoln Park student center Nov. 10, which was led by Public Safety Director Bob Wachowski and Chicago Police Officer Chris Schenk.
Wachowski said the main on-campus concerns are crimes of opportunity, the majority of them being thefts.
Thefts of opportunity are a particular problem at the end of the term because students are especially preoccupied with their studies, according to Wachowski.
He said there were about a dozen thefts of laptops in the John T. Richardson Library last spring. Since then, 36 new cameras have been installed in the library. There were only three thefts from the library during the 2011 fall term, which were all caught on camera.
Wachowski advised students not to leave their belongings unattended and to take them with if they leave a study area. He also recommended studying in groups so that students have people nearby to watch their possessions.
Another concern covered in the CAPS meeting was off-campus robbery.
There were 143 reported thefts in the Lincoln Park area from Sept. 7 to Nov. 7 this year, according to a comparison of police beats distributed at the meeting.
Schenk said students should be cautious of using their cell phones while walking outside because cell phones are "hot commodities." Wachowski said cell phones are the number one commodity for robbers.
Schenk said talking on a cell phone immediately gives a robber an advantage because it preoccupies the victim and lowers their defenses while providing a robber an easy angle for attack.
At night, Schenk said students should walk in groups in well-lit areas and walk with confidence because robbers often profile targets by observing their body language.
Wachowski advised students to "be prepared before something happens," by making a detailed list of valuables kept in wallets, or purses, by programming 9-1-1 into their phone's speed dial and by being aware of their surroundings so in case of an incident, they can tell police where to find them.
Schenk also emphasized the importance of reporting criminal, or suspicious behavior.
"See something, say something," Schenk said.
Wachowski illustrated the importance of reporting criminal behavior to police with the recent arrest of Mihael Jocic, a Lincoln Park man charged with sexual abuse in the DePaul area Nov. 2.
Wachowski said without reports, Jocic wouldn't have been caught and would probably still be walking the streets.
Sophomore, biology major Mustafa Basree said after attending the CAPS meeting, he will be more aware of himself and his surroundings.
"I'm just going to try to remember that there could always be someone watching, waiting for you to be vulnerable," Basree said.
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