Sunday, November 22, 2009
News, In this Issue..., Atlanta

Crime and college

Atlanta is a hub for students, and they are increasingly prey to the city’s criminals

By Sarah Bakhtiari and Muriel Vega

When the Atlanta Police Department recently reported that its Midtown precinct, Zone 5, saw about 500 car break-ins during a three-week period in October, Randall Cobb was aware that a substantial portion of the victims might be college students.

Midtown is home to a hefty slice of at least three campuses: Georgia State University, Georgia Tech and the Savannah College of Art and Design. Cobb, safety director for the Midtown Neighborhood Association, emphasizes that Midtown isn’t much different from most of the rest of the city. Other neighborhoods including Candler Park, Virginia Highland, Inman Park, and the Old Fourth Ward are also battling car break-ins. But Midtown does have a particular challenge.

“When you look at where most of these crimes are committed, which is near Georgia Tech and Atlantic Station, I would have to say that [criminals preying on college students] is where a significant amount of the problem lies,” Cobb says. “People have to remain alert no matter where you work or live, and simply keeping personal belongings out of your vehicle is a huge deterrent.”

APD Maj. Khirus Williams, commander of Zone 5, says about 15 laptops are stolen from cars in the area each week. He points out arrests aren't helping. 

"Last year, we arrested 116 persons for larceny from autos. Collectively, they have been arrested 2,250 times," Williams says via e-mail. "Thus, an arrest means nothing to them."

APD Deputy Chief Peter Andresen reiterates Williams' point: "These crimes are also the responsibility of the prosecution, the courts, probation and parole. We are working to strengthen our relationships but many of our property crime offenders are not only repeat offenders, but career criminals."

To prevent theft, Cobb, Williams and Andresen stress that motorists should stop leaving valuables in their cars. 

Adds Cobb, “To think that it is only Midtown where this is occurring is a misconception.”

He’s right. College students, with their laptops and iPods, coupled with their usual routines of parking and walking to class, hold a certain attraction for criminals, regardless of where they might be in the metro area. The past year has seen reports of crime against college students, particularly robberies, snag the attention of Mayor Shirley Franklin, and prompt Students For Concealed Carry On Campus to lobby the state to make it legal to carry guns or knives on campus.

In late October, Emory University, which has a campus on Briarcliff Road that hugs the edge of the Atlanta city limits, as well as a main campus closer to Decatur, had two armed robberies in the same weekend. Two women were robbed at gunpoint and had their purses stolen on the outskirts of the campus. The college sent an e-mail alert about the robberies, but third-year Emory student Andrew Wilmot says it was his roommate who notified him about the robbery near their residence on Clairmont Road.

"I used to bring my laptop with me to take notes, but I've just been using notebooks since then," Wilmot says. "I've been more wary of taking shortcuts if there aren't any other people around."
   
On the other hand, Duncan Gray, a fourth-year Emory student, says he doesn’t feel the need to change his routine.

“I hear about these robberies all the time,” Gray says. “We live downtown, I expect it. All I can do is not walk in dark alleys and not carry expensive things with me.”

He points to more crime-vexed schools within Atlanta, including GSU and Morehouse College.

 Morehouse is at Atlanta University Center, and students there are indeed more familiar with Atlanta’s crime problem and considerably closer to it. The schools that make up AUC, Morehouse College, Morehouse School of Medicine, Spelman College, and Clark Atlanta University, all have several streets in common, and a picturesque connecting walking route called the Promenade.

Students walking from campus to campus traverse the site where, in September, 19-year-old Spelman student Jasmine Lynn was killed by a stray bullet. 

“Jasmine was struck as she was walking,” says Relle Thomas, a Spelman sophomore. "An innocent bystander. That’s not fair. I went to her funeral and it was incredibly sad to see someone die, someone so vibrant, for no reason at all. We definitely do not feel safe around here, and that needs to change.”

The Clark Atlanta University Department of Public Safety is right on the Promenade, and CAU typically has at least four active patrols at any given time. Some students speculate that if more security would have been present on the night Lynn was killed, she might be alive today.

According to the Spelman College crime log, there have been dozens of reported crimes since the fall semester started, including two burglaries in October and six counts of theft.

MORE THAN AWARENESS

On the other side of the Georgia Dome from AUC, the number of crimes around GSU has actually gone down in the Past year, compared to 2008’s 14 reported incidents. But while there was only one case of armed robbery in 2008 at GSU, according to its Web site, in this semester alone there have been three armed robberies. All occurred off campus on John Wesley Dobbs Avenue, a street many students take to the main campus and dormitories. The primary concern among students is not awareness—they know about the dangers in the area—but how to actually improve security around campus and keep them safer while going from class to class or during those late nights at the library.

“I think that there should be more self defense and avoidance classes, and not only for the girls,” says Zack Aab, a psychology major who lives in the dorms at Georgia State. He mentions there are martial arts classes available at the university, but they’re not strictly geared toward self-defense. “We should perhaps have them all get together and put together a practical course.”

Fourth-year student Britani Anthony agrees.

“There needs to be an increase in security on and off campus,” she says, adding that she takes precautions. “If I go anywhere at night on campus, I take the shuttle or go with friends,” she says. “My parents have always driven that into my brain: the buddy system.” 

Two of Georgia State’s armed robberies occurred on Oct. 9 and 11, bracketing a similar armed robbery at Georgia Tech on Oct. 10. However, the robbery of the Georgia Tech student occurred off-campus, on Ethel Street, under Atlanta Police jurisdiction. Currently, there is no reliable, quick way for both police forces to work together.

Michael Robinson, a lifeguard at Tech’s CRC Aquatics Center, thinks such collaboration is the answer to better public safety on and around campus.

“I believe a stronger show of force by both the APD and GTPD would be the most helpful, given the current circumstances,” he says. “They're happening in an area that’s either GTPD jurisdiction or the APD’s, and I believe they both need to work together to help crack down.”

Officials say there is already collaboration, but it could always be better.

Some students give high marks to safety on campus.

“While I am within campus, I feel safe,” says Katie Thompson, a Georgia Tech sophomore. “There are always patrol cars driving around and going into the businesses at Tech Square. I take the trolley after my night classes or a long library night since I live off-campus, where most of the crime happens. It’s the only way to stay safe.” 

Morehouse senior Jarryd Ronson wishes Atlanta’s city government and police department would have concentrated more on safety around the AUC before recent tragedies occurred.

“The university center has been affected by robberies and shootings way more often than any other schools in the downtown area,” Ronson says. “There’s all this publicity just because of the Emory robberies, when we have to endure crime and lack of an adequate police force around campus every day.”

All college campuses in Atlanta provide students with e-mail alerts, police escorts and blue light phones in various locations, not to mention campus police patrols. Some campuses, like Georgia Tech’s, even have a Twitter feed students can follow on their phones or laptops for the latest campus news. A common suggestion is that more campus police would help deter crime, but no one identifies any resources to pay for them.

“It would be nice to have tightened security, police on every corner to watch out for everyone,” says Georgia State student Rico Chavez. “But that’s just not feasible for the funds.” SP