After a recent string of assaults on or near campus, Georgetown’s Department of Public Safety has not increased patrols, but continues to work closely with the Metropolitan Police Department and the Student Advisory Safety Board to increase campus safety, according to Associate Dirctor of DPS Joseph Smith.
In the three weeks prior to March 30, six assaults took place around the University. Since then, highly publicized sexual assaults occured in Copley Hall and on Prospect St, the latter taking place at gunpoint.
“At DPS we are working hard to address the issue of assaults,” Smith wrote in an e-mail. “In general, DPS has sufficient patrol staffing to respond to crime problems with increased patrols to deter criminals.”
According to Smith, for incidents occuring off-campus DPS coordinates crime prevention efforts and shares information with MPD.
As part of the 2010 Campus Plan, Georgetown is paying for three additional MPD officers to patrols in areas where student live on Thursday through Saturday nights to increase student safety, and to maintain a relatively peaceful party scene, Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson said last week.
Charles Joyce (COL ‘12), Georgetown University Student Association Director of Student Safety and a member of the Student Safety Advisory Board, said he sees the issue of increased MPD patrols as a double-edged sword, with campus safety on one side and student life on the other.
“It’s alright to have cops around, and it certainly makes people feel safe and solves the problem of local crime,” Joyce said. “At the same time, that affects student life and can sometimes cause students to feel uneasy.”
Both Joyce and Smith encouraged students to take a number of basic steps to ensure their own safety, such as always locking doors and walking in groups at night.
“A surefire solution would be to get students more aware of their surroundings … making sure that their friends get home safely and make use of campus services to their full extent,” Joyce said.
