2015 to 2016: Burglary Tripled, Liquor Law Violations Nearly Doubled

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The number of reported burglaries at Le Moyne tripled last year compared to 2015, according to the 2017 Annual Campus Security and Fire Safety Report. Alcohol violations doubled, the report stated.

 

Sergeant Stephen Bear, from Le Moyne’s Campus Security, stated that the numbers listed in the report fluctuate year to year.

 

“I don’t believe anything specific is causing these number to change from one year to another,” Bear states. “We still have the same amount of officers and complete the same amount of checks to residences. It seems to me that the time those burglaries happen is when our students are away on Christmas vacation and spring break.”

 

Bear states that Le Moyne is increasing their ownership of off-campus student housing, which increases the number of property checks Campus Security has to conduct. The campus is divided into four sections with an officer responsible for each section. The property checks consist of checking to make sure all doors and windows are locked when residences are not in the house. They also look over windows, making sure they are not broken or broken into.

 

“We try to be really diligent on doing our property checks as much as we can. We conduct property checks roughly 8-10 times a day to each building,” Bear stated. “But there is still such a small window that it takes to commit these burglaries.”

 

Le Moyne has recently been taking steps to increase the campus’s visibility at night, which may help reduce the number of burglaries happening on campus. Making sure the residences have working motion lights is another area of the property check that Campus Security conducts.

 

“Physical Plant has been working all summer to make sure these houses and residence have proper lighting because we are really trying to accomplish making the campus brighter at night,” Stated Bear.

 

Sergeant Bear stated that Campus Security is doing as much as they can to increase student’s safety on and around campus. In addition to new lighting on campus, Bear said that security got new doors and cameras for outside the athletic center. They also removed the tunnel connecting St. Mary’s and Harrison Hall to increase the visibility to the parking lot.

 

Sergeant Bear reminds students to always lock your doors, no matter how short or long you will be gone for, because it does not take long for a simple burglary to occur. He also encourages students to speak out if you see something out of the ordinary. Campus Security would rather have numerous calls on the same issue, rather than none at all.

 

In 2015, 140 Judicial Liquor Law Violations were recorded. In 2016, that number increased to 269. Bear states the increase in class size might have something to do with the increase of Liquor Law violations happening on campus.

 

“Offenses like this usually occur during the beginning of each year, in which students can see how far they can go, and see how diligent we are, or the RA’s are,” Bear stated. “They want to see how much they can get away with, and the more they get away with it, the more they will continue to do so.”

 

The Annual Security and Fire Safety Report is a document required by federal law and was released last week on September 29th, 2017.

 

For more information, or to view the Annual Security and Fire Safety Report, please visit

https://www.lemoyne.edu/Student-Life/Student-Services/Security/Annual-Reports or https://www.lemoyne.edu/Portals/0/BfmPdfs/2017_LMC_SecurityReport_Final.pdf