Almost 600 miles north and roughly 1,800 miles northeast from New Mexico are the sites of robberies in student housing facilities. The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire has been the scene of several thefts of change and small items by a thief known as the “Pillowcase Bandit”. In Lower Merion, Pennsylvania, broken doors allowed entrance to a thief who took the electronics of the student. Student housing theft at the University of New Mexico hosted the theft of several thousands of dollars worth of jewelry.
In the cases in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, there is no information on student housing theft prevention attempts by campus authorities. In New Mexico, however, campus authorities are changing keys, escorting personnel into student apartments and asking students to be on hand when maintenance workers enter their apartments. In no case was a security camera, monitored or otherwise, mentioned. They might have prevented the thefts in the first place.
The Numbers
U.S. News reports that the most recent data available for campus crime covers the years between 2010 and 2012. In this report it is noted that only schools receiving federal aid are required to report such crimes. Schools with private funding are not required by law to report crime on campus. The article did not list the numbers; it said the statistics could be found in each school’s profile page online. That leaves us with fragmentary evidence regarding not only real-time crime, but also the need for real-time crime prevention.
Gotcha!
There are literally millions of hits online for college campuses using security cameras. An interesting article discussing the pros and cons of monitored security cameras on campus listed at least six colleges and universities whose students and faculty were glad to have them. While privacy is a matter for legitimate concern, so is campus crime. The sources mentioned in the article gravitated more toward relief for their presence than antagonism over privacy. So the fragmentary evidence discussed above looks like a matter of perspective.
Need for Live Monitoring
These universities are not clients of Stealth Monitoring. College crime is increasing. Personal assaults as well as robberies are a matter for concern on colleges and universities across the country. Young people are vulnerable. Only a small percentage of colleges and universities use monitored security cameras.
Young people deserve a safe and secure setting for their higher learning. Stealth Monitoring is the leader in live video surveillance with over 9,000 watched cameras. We specialize in proactive and intelligent live video monitoring that can significantly improve threat protection and police response to your campus. Please contact us for more information on how Stealth can help protect your students. Visit our web site for videos that show criminals being apprehended.
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