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BY AMELIA POSSANZA

In print | Published September 17, 2009

Since a student’s backpack was stolen two weeks ago in McCabe, administrators and community members are advising students to take advantage of several new security measures that were implemented last year in response to recurring library thefts and campus intrusions.

In the recent incident, the student’s backpack was stolen when it was left outside a bathroom inside McCabe. The student immediately notified Public Safety. After reviewing security camera footage, the student identified the perpetrator entering the library and then exiting with the backpack. The fact that the perpetrator had written his real name in the visitor sign-in book also allowed him to be identified. Public Safety, working with local law enforcement, apprehended the thief several days later. The perpetrator is not a member of the college community.

“I want to applaud the student for quickly alerting Public Safety,” said Garikai Campbell, acting dean of students. “It was certainly her quick action, and the responsiveness of both our Public Safety and the Borough Police that led to the thief’s apprehension.”

Brian Craig, the Swarthmore Borough police chief, agreed. “The more quickly we find out about these things, the more quickly we can act,” Craig said.

Campbell suggested several ways in which students can prevent theft.

“It is important for all of us to be very diligent about minding some basic tips to ensure the security of our belongings, our safety, and the safety of our peers,” he said. “Unfortunately, thefts can happen so quickly.”

He recommended that students carry valuables on their person, ask friends to watch them and secure them in safe areas such as the McCabe lockers. The library added security cameras in January 2007 and lockers in last September.

“[A thief] will seize any opportunity that comes their way,” Campbell said.

Owen Redgrave, Director of Public Safety, reiterated Campbell’s message. “Virtually every theft on Swarthmore college campus is property that’s been left unattended or unsecured or both,” he said.

Of the six thefts that took place in McCabe between last September and this September, not a single one involved force. Students in all scenarios left their belongings unattended for anywhere from five minutes to one hour.

“We’ve tried to make the means available to students so that they can protect their property,” Redgrave said. “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.”

Craig also noted that people needed to be more careful.

“They’re just too comfortable,” he said, referring not only to Swarthmore students but also to Borough residents. One of the most common reports that the department gets is of items such as laptops, iPods and GPSs stolen from unlocked cars.

“It doesn’t happen all too frequently, but when it happens to you it’s once too often,” he said.

Residential Assistant Omari Scott ’12 is aware of this comfortable atmosphere. “I realize that our campus is safe and that a lot of people are trusting of other people,” he said. “But after [this] incident I became more wary.”

Although Scott does try to keep his belongings with him and asks friends to watch them in his absence, he has never used a library locker.

The McCabe theft is the only one reported so far this year, but Public Safety has been called for other types of concerns. On Thursday, several Willets residents noticed a person on the phone in one of the lounges that they did not recognize as a student. They notified their RA. Although by that time the person had already left the lounge, the RA called Public Safety. “It’s very important that we report events to Public Safety,” Campbell said. “As illustrated by this recent theft, it’s the first step to alerting the community,and to preventing further bad acts.”

Redgrave explained that one of the things that keeps the college safe is the network of people constantly keeping an eye on campus activity. Two to four officers always patrol campus with an additional officer added in the evenings. In addition, shuttle drivers are trained to look out for suspicious activities and notify an officer immediately. The Swarthmore police, facilities workers and college students are also watching for anything that seems out of place.

Reporting suspicious persons is the key method the college has for keeping out unwanted visitors and potential thieves.

“We have an open campus, and we don’t try to prevent visitors from participating in our community in appropriate ways,” Campbell said. “That openness certainly means that we can have on rare occasion folks among us who we don’t want to be part of our community.”

Campbell suggested that students take on the mutual responsibility of identifying unfamiliar people they see on campus.

That means not only that students should walk up to strangers and ask them to identify themselves but also that these strangers agree to reveal their identities.

With these procedures, the college aims to keep campus crime to a minimum.

Redgrave explained that thieves and other criminals tend to brag to each other, revealing which locations have led to easy and lucrative thefts.

“It’s important not to have crime, even if it’s just a textbook,” he said. “It has the propensity to attract additional criminal activity.”

Campbell and Redgrave both agreed that crime would continue to be a community-wide issue into the foreseeable future.

But Redgrave noted that it doesn’t have to be that way.

“There are problems that are virtually unsolvable,” he said. “This doesn’t seem to be one of them.”

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