Gannon Knight News

     On-campus crime at Gannon University has dropped for the second year in a row; this time by a significant amount – almost 18 percent.
     Part One Offenses, as defined by the FBI Uniform Crime Reports, dropped by 17.78 percent from 2008 to 2009.
     Part One Offenses include criminal homicide, forcible rape, robbery, assault, burglary, larceny/theft, motor vehicle theft and arson. Not all of the offenses have been committed, but the ones that have occured have dropped in the last year.
     According to a Gannon University police report, from 2008 to 2009, overall crime on campus dropped from 45 incidents to 37 – from 2007 to 2008, the incidents dropped by only one, from 46 to 45. Forcible rape decreased from three cases to one, assaults decreased from four to zero and burglaries decreased from five incidents to one.
     James Waldon, chief of police and safety, attributed the drop in crime to several circumstances, including the hard work of the students themselves.
     “It was a combination of things that all came together to make that happen,” Waldon said. “Students are trying to be careful about where they’re going and what they’re doing, traveling more in groups. I definitely see more students traveling in groups than when I first came here, which will make them safer.”
     Waldon said he also attributed the drop in crime to the work of the men and women on his staff, whose crime prevention strategies this past year included increased community policing, foot patrols and saturation patrols.
     “James Waldon has put a focus on the visibility of his police officers,” said Karla Wludyga, director of public relations and communications and special assistant to the president. “You might see Campus Police and Safety vehicles patrol this area more often than you did in the past.”
     The new location of police and safety can also be considered a contributing factor in the crime rate drop; Waldon said the office in the basement of the Harborview House Apartments has led to better relations among the students, community and police force.
     “We’re more centrally located now,” Waldon said. “We’re right in the middle of everything and in fact, we have more interactions with students just by being in a building where students actually live. I see students who I wouldn’t normally see and have conversations with them, in the laundry room or carrying groceries in. It makes for a real different, real interesting interaction.”
     Another contributing factor, one that people may not consider, Waldon said, is that Gannon had one of the highest clearance rates of crime last year among colleges and universities in Erie County. The clearance rate is how many offenders have been cleared of their crimes.
     In order to be cleared of a crime, one must first be arrested for that crime.
     “That contributed to less crime this year,” Waldon said. “Clearing a lot of crimes means making a lot of arrests. We won’t have the best clearance rate in the county this year, but that’s because we have less crimes to clear. It’s a good problem to have.”

     The amount of on-campus crimes dropped only 2 percent from 2007 to 2008. This small of an increase or decrease in crime is considered normal, Waldon said.
     “It’s usually plus or minus 5 percent, which is about what you expect it to be,” he said.
     Lindsey Kurtz, a junior English major, said she was surprised to hear the amount of on-campus crime had decreased, especially with a shooting on West Eighth Street Jan. 25, and police sirens continually heard throughout the city. However, Wludyga said that within an urban environment, such a drop in crime was to be applauded.
     “I think if you compare crime rates at rural universities compared to urban universities, like Gannon, you’re probably going to see a pattern that the urban universities do have higher crime rates, simply because they’re smack in the middle of a place where the population is higher, and so therefore crime rates are higher,” she said.
     “Gannon is always going to have to deal with that, being an urban campus, but to see such a drop in spite of that is very impressive.”
     Kurtz said she still wished she saw a stronger police presence on campus late at night in the area surrounding the Kenilworth and Crispo Apartments.
     “You don’t see the patrol cars as much as you’d like to at night, and it’s difficult to catch the [Knight Rider EMTA] bus when you need it,” Kurtz said. “Security still has more room to grow, and we still need to make huge strides in safety on campus, but knowing the crime rate has dropped, as a student, does make me feel safer.”