Sudden Snatches Overwhelm Campus
by Morgan Scroggs
According to the Georgia State
University campus crime alert, the most frequently reported crime of
the last six months has been “robbery by sudden snatching.”
The crimes, usually involving
electronic devices and cell phones, have become especially bold
leading up to the holiday season and the new year. In 2010, the GSU
police statistical report cataloged 22 robberies and 330 larcenies or
thefts. Those numbers are marginally reduced from the 2009
statistical report, but the 2011 report has yet to be published.
In December, GSU students held a crime
prevention meeting to discuss the problems facing the campus of
nearly 33,000 students and faculty.
CBS Atlanta reported that a number of
students were affected; one student, Keticia Wilson, said that she
still gets shivers. According to CBS Atlanta, witness Betty Mekonnen
said that “the offenders are really smart, they're bold and doing
it in broad daylight.”
Head of crime prevention, Sgt. Kristal
Perkins feels that students need to be more aware while on campus.
“I don't think that our students are
utilizing the resources that our police department is offering them,”
she says. The department offers self defense classes, safety escorts,
and call boxes. “I don't think the escort service is going to
minimize the robberies by sudden snatching,” says Perkins, “I
think it's the entire community being aware of their surroundings and
taking responsibility for themselves.”
Although several of the locations of
the snatchings reported by the GSU campus crime alert include
familiar streets, GSU buildings are beginning to creep into the radar
as targets by the offenders.
The General Classroom Building, a well
known drop-off and pick-up for students traveling by the Panther Bus,
has been the location for robbery by sudden snatching twice in the
past four months.
In one incident, the cell phone was
snatched from a student standing on the steps; in the other incident,
the snatching occurred on the third floor of the building – a
location not as easy for criminals to target – making the crime a
little more sudden, and a lot more personal.
Perkins believes that there are no
designated high-crime areas, but she says the department tries to
stay in areas where there are a lot of people, or in places where an
increase of theft has been reported. “We just want to make sure we
target our entire campus for visibility and make sure our entire
campus is safe.”
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