The siren wailed and blue lights flashed as Boston University Police Department Sgt. Larry Cuzzi’s cruiser blazed from downtown down Beacon Street toward BU. Snaking between moving cars and edging past stopped ones at red lights, the cruiser made its way back to campus.
A call had just come over the radio that a man previously kicked off BU property was back at the BU Central T stop. Flying past Myles Standish Hall, Cuzzi drove down Bay State Road like so many high school kids wish they could.
With a quick left at The Castle and another right onto Commonwealth Avenue, the cruiser soon came to a stop in front of Marsh Chapel. Cuzzi got out of the car and moved quickly to the T stop, meeting with officers already there. The suspect was warned that if he returned to the property he would be arrested.
Nov. 21 was a slow Friday night with few calls. Yet, like most nights, Cuzzi and about 10 other officers patrolled BU’s campus, making it one of the safest in the Boston area, according to 2002 FBI crime statistics.
The statistics show BU has significantly fewer incidents of violent crime than Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northeastern University or Emerson College.
Yet crime is still a problem on BU’s campus. Boston Medical Center, which is run by BU in the South End, sees its fair share of violent and gang-related crime, Cuzzi said.
About two years ago a car pulled up to the emergency room riddled with bullet holes only to have its door open and a body fall out, he said.
BUPD has lost only one officer in the line of duty, which was a dog in the late 1970s, Cuzzi said.
The dog, named Sarge, and his handler, were off-duty on Commonwealth Avenue when they saw two men with guns moving down the street, BUPD Sgt. Jack St. Hilaire said. Cambridge police were pursuing the suspects, but when Sarge saw the suspects with guns out, he attacked them and was shot and killed.
St. Hilaire said he believes the suspects were never apprehended, and Cuzzi said BUPD is trying to get Sarge’s name put on the officers’ memorial wall.
But BU remains safe because of ‘the aggressive steps the university takes in educating the faculty, staff and student body in regards to crime and crime prevention,’ St. Hilaire said.
Community policing is integral to keeping BU safe, and he said BUPD does that by speaking to all incoming students at orientation and using safety brochures to inform students about campus safety.
BUPD also has a determined community policing unit that meets with the BU community weekly to address crime, crime prevention and social problems.
St. Hilaire said BU also works to keep the campus safe. Once a week, officers meet with high ranking university officials in security meetings to go over police reports and criminal activity and discuss how to address problems.
‘The security meetings are significant in keeping the university a safe place because in essence the university is assisting the police and sharing in the responsibility in providing police services,’ he said.
‘We’re not an island,’ St. Hilaire said. ‘We can’t do it without the support of the public and the university.’
BUPD tries to keep the public constantly informed about area crimes, according to St. Hilaire. Its website publishes crime reports and BUPD publicizes significant crimes in the media.
One of the most publicized crimes BUPD solved was the 1999 rape of a BU student at Loretto Hall, a dormitory on the grounds of Emmanuel College that BU no longer uses.
‘[The rapist] was apprehended on the grounds of Emmanuel College while he was trying to escape,’ St. Hilaire said. ‘He raped a young woman and was apprehended through good police work.’
The rapist, Abdelmajid Akouk, was convicted of the rape after an extensive trial and is serving a 40- to 45-year sentence.
The investigation into sexual acts occurring in College of Arts and Sciences bathrooms last year is another incident involving BUPD, and was even mentioned on an installment of ‘The O’Reilly Factor,’ a news analysis show featuring BU alumnus Bill O’Reilly.
The investigation sent undercover BUPD officers into the bathrooms to stop sexual behavior after they received reports from students and professors, St. Hilaire told The Daily Free Press last year. He said police arrested about 50 people.
St. Hilaire said a professor from another college attacked BUPD for the investigation on ‘The O’Reilly Factor,’ saying the investigation discriminated against homosexuals.
‘[The] police department and the university were staunchly defended by Bill O’Reilly against false accusations of entrapment as well as being unsympathetic to deviant sexual activity,’ he said.
BUPD is responsible for policing a community equivalent to the size of a small municipality in a large urban environment, St. Hilaire said. With about 60 officers on the force, BUPD protects about 50,000 students, faculty and staff as well as the Boston Medical Center, according to St. Hilaire.
BUPD was given its policing powers in the 1970s following riots at BU protesting the Vietnam War, according to St. Hilaire, who said BUPD had been considered more of a security force before then.