Georgetown University’s Department of Public Safety, working with George Washington University’s Police Department and the Metropolitan Police Department, has identified a suspect in one of the many cases of laptop theft on Georgetown’s campus this semester.
DPS notified UPD, which believes that he may be a suspect in one of this semester’s many laptop thefts at GWU. According to UPD Chief Kevin Hay, the suspect is not a student at either university.
“We are grateful to Georgetown University police for identifying a suspect in one of their cases, [who] is also a suspect in one of our cases,” he said. “We are pursuing a warrant for his arrest at this time.”
Both Georgetown and GWU recently stepped up security policies in response to the thefts. According to Hay, UPD has dispatched plainclothes officers to catch potential thieves. At Georgetown, DPS constructed a guard station last month outside the Village A apartment complex, where four thefts and two attempted burglaries have been reported since mid-October.
In a Nov. 5 email addressed to Village A residents, DPS Associate Director Joseph Smith and Residence Life Director Stephanie Lynch promised that the University had adopted new security measures, such as assigning officers to additional patrol routes in the area to keep the apartment complex safe.
“The Department of Public Safety is working closely with Metropolitan Police Department regarding the ongoing investigation of recent incidents and to enhance MPD presence in the areas adjacent to campus,” they wrote.
DPS officers also posted signs in Lauinger Library, where 16 laptops were reported stolen this semester, to warn students against leaving their possessions unattended. However, current investigations remain under wraps.
“We are running undercover operations across campus and coordinating with local law enforcement and other university police and security teams,” Rachel Pugh, Georgetown’s director of media relations, wrote in an email. She added that investigations are ongoing.
At a Nov. 29 Advisory Neighborhood Committee meeting, MPD Lieutenant John Hedgecock stated that similar thefts were occurring at American University.
“We are examining them to see if there is a link,” Hedgecock said.
However, laptop thefts have only surged at Georgetown and GWU. American University Police representative Adam Cooper claims that laptop thefts on campus are similar to those in previous years.
“AU is always working with the other schools and sharing information with them,” he said. “We’ve seen 20 cases involving 23 laptops.”
Cooper attributed American’s relatively lower levels of theft to a grant that funded a camera surveillance system in the campus library, which aided an investigation that led to an arrest.
“Before the cameras were installed, 56 percent of thefts used to occur in the library,” he said. “After the system was announced in October of 2009, this dropped to 15 percent.”
