Despite increase in county crime, many students still feel safe on campus

After a student was fatally shot in one of 13 homicides this year and the university community was warned not to open any mail during a state government bomb scare, many students still said nothing can surprise them anymore.

"I've become desensitized to it because of the constant crime alerts, and it's all over the news, so it's just like, ‘Oh look, more crime,'" freshman animal sciences major Kayla Miner said. "There's definitely concern that there's all this crime, but overexposure makes it more of a statistic and less a big news item."

In the first 19 days of this year, there were 265 violent crimes — homicides, sexual assaults, robberies and assaults — in Prince George's County, compared to 250 between Jan. 1, 2010 and Jan. 19, 2010.

The 2011 figure includes 13 homicides — including the Jan. 11 killing of student Justin DeSha-Overcash — compared to just six in 2010.

"I feel like there should be more security to get those numbers down," said Chris Williams, a freshman civil engineering major. "But having high crime rates is just the way it's always been around here."

Other students, such as junior economics, international business and marketing major Lizzi Bollinger, said although crime rates seem to be rising, they will not change their behavior.

"The recent crimes off campus don't affect me," Bollinger said. "I'll keep on doing what I'm doing. I'm still going to run to the gym by myself."

Junior criminology and criminal justice major Corey Zoldan said many students feel like they are impervious to the rising crime rates.

"I think the university only comprises a fraction of [Prince George's] County, and the increase in crime may not be in areas where students are likely to go," Zoldan said.

Most of this year's homicides occurred in high-crime neighborhoods near the Washington border, in such locales as Capitol Heights and Suitland, and police said nearly all — including the off-campus shooting — are drug-related, and University Police spokesman Sgt. Ken Leonard said the campus itself has been quiet so far this year.

In fact, the campus has seen no reports of homicide, rape, robbery or assault at all this month.

"One of the major things that the chief and the department is working on is the perception of crime on campus," he said.

"There really is not much, especially when compared to surrounding areas. There is the misperception of a crime-ridden campus, which has never been backed up by statistics."

Even so, Zoldan said he would never roam the streets of College Park alone at night.

"I went to Toronto in November and was walking alone late at night, and I felt 100 percent comfortable," he said. "It's a totally different feel in College Park."

To improve relations with the university community and help deter criminals, Leonard said University Police officers will soon begin concentrating their patrols on several specific areas across the campus.

"The new patrolling, I think, will help make us more visible to the community, which can further help [students'] perception of safety on our campus," he said. "I think that students will be more careful about their off-campus housing and their surroundings."

University Police have a concurrent jurisdiction with county officers to help patrol student-heavy neighborhoods near the campus; Leonard said his department was part of an effort to prevent off-campus break-ins during the winter vacation but wouldn't describe what police were doing.

Proactive efforts to prevent crime are what College Park needs, criminology and criminal justice lecturer Cortney Fisher said. The high level of crime in the county is an ongoing problem that police need to treat proactively, she said.

"It is very important to keep the focus on the perpetration, rather than the victims of the homicide," Fisher said. "For example, keep the focus on if the perpetrators are gang involved or drug involved, or whether the murder was committed in the course of another crime."

Despite a consistent nonchalant attitude of many students, freshman environmental science and policy major Micah Miles said she is still frightened by the area's crime.

"It's pretty scary," Miles said. "We don't exactly live in the heart of the county, but it's scary to think that that stuff could get on our campus and affect us. One of those people could come on campus, come into my building and rob me. It could happen to anyone."

egan at umdbk dot com