The J-TAC (Stephenville, Tex.), Vol. 173, No. 10, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 12, 2007 Page: 9 of 16
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April 12, 2007
The J-TAC
Page 9
BURGLARIES: Men's residences more
i
likely to get robbed than women's rooms
Continued from page 1
crimes,as a single offense.
"There was a time when there
was a break-in and someone went
from room to room over in Fergu-
son and Bender and they're not all
accountable as separate burglaries/'
Hooper said. '
.However, according to the U.S.
Department of Education's Hand-
book for Campus Crime Report-
ing, "each room is considered to be
a separate dwelling/' If a burglar
enters five on-campus dorm rooms
without permission on the same
night and only steals items from
one room and takes nothing from
the other four, the handbook says
the crime spree must be classified
as five burglaries because five indi-
vidual dwellings were entered with
the intent of theft.
Hooper said another reason
the numbers don't match depends
on whether force was used in the
burglary. If someone enters a build-
ing without using force, and steals
something, Hooper said that is not
considered a burglary that must be
disclosed. .
"We constantly review because
it's very complicated," he said.
The Clery handbook defines
burglary as the "unlawful entry of
a structure to commit a felony or a
theft," whether force was used or
not. <
"If a person... enters an un-
locked structure (room), or one
where the door was left open, the
proper classification would be bur-
glary," the handbook states.
Thirty six of the burglary re-
ports contain notations that "fur-
ther investigation needed."
Hopper says his department
sometimes finds itself with too few
officers and too many crimes.
"Well, sometimes we get be-
hind," the chief said. "I'm not the
Los Angeles Police Department.
"I can't put a squad of people
on it. I've got one man, and he does
all the investigation. If he feels like
"...sometimes
we get behind/'
the chief said'
"I'm not the Los
Angeles Police
Department..."
— Police Chief
Robert Hooper
there's still something out there to
do then he'll leave it that way, and
sometimes he doesn't have a change
or doesn't remember to go back to
that specific case and change the
status/'
Despite the discrepancy in
numbers, Floyd said the university
strives to keep students and the
campus safe. "Our job is to pro-
vide an ultimately safe campus," he
said.
Tarleton is described as a safe
campus on various pages on its"
website. One says Stephenville and
Tarleton "have been designated one
of the safest college towns in Texas
and in the nation." In a virtual tour,
produced by an English class, the
university is described as "the saf-
est campus in Texas."
In an interview, however, offi-
cials shied away from such claims.
While Floyd believes that Tarleton
is "one of the safest campuses," he
does,not think it is "the safest."
"Who knows what's going to hap-
pen tomorrow?" he asked.
"I get nervous when somebody
says that we're the safest campus,"
Hooper added. "That's ah awful
burden to bear."
Shelly Conboy-Brown, assistant
director of hpusing and residence
life, said the dorms are "as safe as
the students want to make them."
The university last year began
to beef up dorm security, she said.
Conboy-Brown said the univer-
sity informs and educates students
about campus crime and how to
guard against becoming a victim.
"Housing wants to increase the
awareness,.. that's what is so impor-
tant," she said.
* Residents receive emails about
concents within or around the
residence hall and attend "all-hall
meetings" at the beginning of the
semester. Tarleton police attend the
meetings and discuss issues with
the students. In addition, signs are
posted around the halls to increase
communication among residents,
Housing wants to "get the point
across that this is a responsibility
that everybody in the community
has," she said.
The university also is installing
a key-lock system on dorms that
will require students to swipe an
ID card to enter the building. Hous-
ing is "tightening security more and
more," Conboy-Brown said.
Further, the university has an
around-the-clock monitor in the
women's dorms and in Centen-
nial to handle emergencies, and the
women's monitor is available for
both the women's and men's dorms,
she said.
Numbers show that burglar-
ies are higher in men's dorms than
"...(Tarleton is)
one of the safest
campuses (not)
'the safest.,
— Dr. Koy Floyd,
Vice President for
Institutional
Advancement
women's, Police records show that
Ferguson Hall reported 29 bur-
glaries over the three-year period.
Bender followed with 19 burglaries.
The fdur women's dorms reported
one burglary. Tjie remaining bur-
glaries were scattered throughout
other buildings apross campus.
- Conboy-Bro-vyn said men's
dorms are more! attractive targets
than women's dorms because men
are more likely to have possessions
thieves find desirable, such as Play-
Stations and other electronics. Fur-
ther, the men's dormitories are in
close proximity to one another mak-
ing them easier to target, she said.
Some students say they believe the
university cares about student safe-
ty, but .other students don't heed
warnings. /
"The resident advisors and the
office staff were pretty strict when
it came to safety precautions," said
Kallen Hayes, a recent graduate of
Tarleton and former resident of the
Hunewell dormitory. "People got in
trouble if they left doors open or had
people in their rooms after hours or
without permission.. You could tell
they [the staff] weren't doing it to
be annoying but because they really
cared about our safety."
Elle Heard, a freshman at Tar-
leton, said students should take
more responsibility for protecting
themselves. "A lot of girls don't
lock their doors/' she said. "I count
on my suitemates leaving their door
unlocked when I'm locked out of
my dorm room,"
Freshman Chad Plumlee said,
"Most people lock their doors.
There's an RA but he's not guarding
the door or anything; he's usually in
his room, but he'll check stuff out."
However, Teresa Brevic, sopho-
more and former resident of Moody,
worries about the lack of monitor-
ing. "The bad thing is there's no
one watching the door so if the RA's
asleep, you can sneak people in,"
she said. 1
Conboy-Brown said that the
dorms offer a friendly, courteous
environment where students will
"hold the door for anybody." Ulti-
mately, however, Conboy-Brown
encourages students to help make
the dorms safe. "This is your home,"
she said, "make it safe for your-
self."
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This is part 10 of an 11-part series which will conclude in next week's edition of
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The J-TAC at 254-968-9058.
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The J-TAC (Stephenville, Tex.), Vol. 173, No. 10, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 12, 2007, newspaper, April 12, 2007; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth142154/m1/9/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Tarleton State University.