Crime and the community

"Rash of car break-ins." "Man charged for carrying gun." "Pizza pilfered." Annoying, frightening or funny, the crime briefs that appear regularly in The Chronicle are frequent reminders that the Duke community is not completely safe from criminal activity. While students often read them for amusement, these reports are, after all, accounts of crimes that occur on and around campus. Though a lighthearted reaction to pizza pilferings may not be entirely misplaced, students, faculty and staff also face very real threats to the safety of their persons and property.

In mid-January, three freshmen were robbed by a man who said he had a gun while returning to East Campus from Ninth Street. After one of them handed over $95 to the gunman, the students walked away physically unharmed. But even the opportunity for violence present in the situation threatened the campus' feeling of security.

Gunpoint robberies are not the only serious crimes that affect campus. Two recent sexual assaults that occurred in dorm bathrooms--one in Wannamaker Dormitory in the fall, one in Randolph Dormitory last spring--and a third off-campus assault on a student were devastating to the victims and had a far-reaching impact on the community.

The first line of response to crime is to change the campus access situation, adding videocameras, instituting more frequent patrols and changing locks. But some people are questioning whether such measures produce a real change in the ability of would-be criminals to take advantage of others. Instead, among students and administrators alike, there is an increasing sense that strengthening the community itself may be the best answer to the problem of crime.

I've definitely been approached in the Blue Zone by people who I know aren't students," senior Jen Lopez says. "It's kind of creepy, and I am generally apprehensive about going out to my car at night."

Lopez's unease is a common feeling among students; while secure enough in the well-traveled areas where they spend most of their time, many are nervous about visiting the more remote corners of campus.

"I feel safe but wary," says Duke Student Government Director of Student Services Elizabeth Dixon, a sophomore. "Generally, you can trust that the person sitting next to you in the Gothic Reading Room is going to watch your laptop for you... [but] outside the semi-protective walls of main campus, students do feel like their safety is being violated."

Senior Derek Juang, serving his second year as a resident assistant in Randolph, has seen a change in student alertness to safety issues.

Despite the lack of new officers, DUPD has not been idle in response to growing student concern about crime. After last month's hold-up on East, the DUPD and the Durham Police Department put together an Area Law Enforcement Target unit that will provide additional patrols to East Campus for the rest of the semester. ALERT teams, which are temporary, have been put in place before. For example, a similar team was formed last year following the Randolph assault.

Birkhead says the teams are generally successful in preventing further violent crime--although since major crimes still occur at most a few times a semester, it is difficult to say whether additional incidents would have occurred even without the aid of the teams.

To grow with the campus, DUPD opened a police substation on Central Campus last semester. "One of the guiding factors for the substation was the robberies in Duke Gardens and Central Campus last academic year," Dean says. "These substations are manned randomly. However, having officers coming and going at different times from these substations affords us additional exposure to the community, as well as [to] the criminals."

Though officers are assigned patrol areas, many of the beats are conducted in a random fashion so that criminals cannot exploit a beat schedule to find, in Dean's words, "a window of opportunity."

While the police department routinely responds to criminal activity, high-profile cases draw high-profile responses from the administration and student groups as well. Following the sexual assault in Wannamaker this past fall, for example, the locks on every dorm restroom on campus were changed to further limit the number of students who could access each restroom. Additionally, DSG passed a 24-point resolution in November recommending changes to campus security, "in response to the increased awareness of our vulnerability to unsafe situations on campus."

Dixon supports many of the resolution's recommendations but says she would like to see a change in the approach taken to dealing with student safety. "I feel that it's time for students and for DSG to come up with reasonable, feasible solutions," she says, proposing a buddy system for late-night walks back from remote parts of campus as well as frequently-offered self-defense classes.

Two safety measures that have raised the most eyebrows over the past semester are the lock changes that have already taken place and the possibility of installing surveillance cameras above dorm entrances.

Juang is supportive of the presence of four cameras on the outside of Randolph.

"I haven't heard any complaints about them from residents," he says. "I think it's nice because I feel like [the administration] is trying."

No incidents of trespassing in Randolph have been reported to DUPD since the installation of the cameras, which are a test case for possible future cameras.

Last semester's lock changes have met with mixed reviews from students. While some feel safer because of the more limited access to dorm bathrooms, others are less convinced of their effectiveness.

"It was about time," says sophomore Mary Ellison Baars of the change. "I can't believe that in light of the sexual assaults, the locks were not changed earlier. We waited for a week and a half, while dreading every time we went to the bathroom in the middle of the night."

Lopez, who was fined for propping open a bathroom door last semester, has a different take on the lock situation.

"Personally, I feel safer having the bathroom door propped wide open instead of locked so that only three other people can enter in the event of an attack," she says. "If someone is going to commit a crime, why not steal keys or pick a lock, too? Locking the bathroom door is only going to slow a potential assailant, but certainly not deter him. Changing the lock is inconsequential--it only keeps out the residents who might be available to help otherwise."

Jean Leonard, coordinator of Sexual Assault Support Services for the Women's Center, observes that while mechanisms like cameras and extra locks may be helpful in some ways, establishing a safe community is not simply a matter of installing safety devices. Such "Band-Aid solutions," she says, "do address people's concerns about safety... [but] don't address the cultural climate on campus.

"Psychologically, [safety mechanisms] often make people feel safer.... People will sort of rely on that, sometimes instead of addressing other issues, such as talking about issues of consent and responsible drinking," Leonard continues. "If you wanted to take those resources you would put into cameras and put them into more staff--people who do what I do--it may have more of an effect, because most of the assaults we see are acquaintance assault."

The theme of much crime-related talk is a call for a more pro-active and community-minded approach to safety concerns--linking safety mechanisms to community involvement.

"We would like to see students get involved in being mindful of their own safety," Birkhead says. He encourages students to "use the blue light phones to say 'I'm in the Blue Zone, I need a ride....' If you feel uncomfortable, you can always pick up that phone."

Dean also encourages students to report suspicious activity and instances of crime. "If you feel uneasy, nine times out of 10 there's something to make you feel that way," he says.

One of the most important aspects of a community vision of crime prevention is communication among students--an open discussion of both the problems on campus and personal ways to solve them, such as accompanying others to parking lots.

"No matter what programming is put in place, until students own the problem in some way, it cannot be completely resolved," Leonard says. This move towards ownership, as she sees it, "is slowly happening." She points in particular to the Healthy Devil's Peer Education Program, which addresses issues of sexual assault, alcohol, drug use and eating disorders, among others. The program used to be very small but now has more than 200 students involved, Leonard says.

Sexual assault is a specific crime for which a strong community network can be a powerful tool.

"Sexual assault on campus is far more of a problem than people realize.... We need to hold our friends to a higher standard," Dixon says. "Security cameras outside dorms are not the most effective measure, but paired with more student awareness, they could make a difference.... When a girl wakes up and someone is standing in her room, it's because someone let [that person] in."

One model for the approach of promoting personal involvement is the neighborhood that surrounds East Campus, which has responded to crime by joining forces through District II of the Partners Against Crime organization. PAC II, DUPD and the Durham Police Department share information about cases, which has been helpful to past investigations.

"I do feel safer knowing that my neighbors are looking out for my safety and that we continue to work with each other to make our neighborhood safe," says Newman Aguiar, chair of PAC II. "By working together, we have successfully addressed some of the crime targeted against our community. We have seen some reduction in crime; however, the current level of crime is still unacceptable and we must continue our efforts to reduce it, if not eliminate it."

The task for Duke, then, is to take the same strategies that have made community-based programs in high-crime neighborhoods successful and adapt them to a university setting.

"We see policing as a community effort, and we want students to use the resources that we have in place," Birkhead says. "I would say it is always effective to educate, to orientate.... That's the goal of community policing: You get to know your constituents."

The University is still far from a real community model of crime prevention, but the first steps are being taken. Supporters hope that linking security devices and programs to student attention and action will create the stronger network that helps keep community members safe.

Perhaps Aguiar puts it best: "The key is engagement. If we always remain aware of our surroundings and take the time to know our neighbors and communicate with them, we will continue to make progress. When we remain engaged, we are better able to identify the problems as they arise and work together to find solutions."