BUPD encourages caution despite ‘quiet’ summer

Summer was business as usual for the Boston University Police Department, BUPD officials said.

The biggest issues this summer were theft and burglaries, BUPD spokesman Sgt. Jack St. Hilaire said. Though the numbers were lower because less of the population was present, the numbers were not significantly different from during the school year.

‘It’s very quiet [over the summer] because the student population goes down,’ St. Hilaire said. ‘The thefts are still a problem-even though the rate went down, you have to realize that a lot of students aren’t here.’

BUPD confronted two major issues involving BU faculty and staff, St. Hilaire said.

The chancellor’s residence at 32 Carlton St., home of University President Emeritus John Silber, was broken into at the beginning of the summer. Silber was not there at the time, but alarms were triggered and BUPD arrived on the scene in time to catch the burglar inside the building, St. Hilaire said.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘

The second issue concerned the assault of a female BU employee. The assault, which was not sexual in nature, occurred on the BU campus. St. Hilaire said he could not comment on the location of the crime because it is still under investigation, but the matter was quickly resolved.’ ‘ ‘

‘It had nothing to do with the students,’ he said. ‘They wouldn’t have been affected by it. It’s just one of our cases.” ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘

St. Hilaire said the majority of the cases BUPD handled over the summer are related to the community surrounding BU, rather than the campus itself.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘

‘A lot of the issues we deal with while the students are gone are not connected with BU,’ he said. ‘We patrol Kenmore, so we make arrests, but it has nothing to do with BU. It’s just urban life.” ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘

In the future, BUPD is interested in pursuing more thorough student education about crime prevention tactics, St. Hilaire said.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘

‘When you examine these [campus] crimes, the vast majority can be prevented,’ St. Hilaire said.

He said actions as simple as remembering to close and lock doors when leaving can help, since many of the residence hall thefts the BUPD encounters are crimes of opportunity.

‘People leave their doors open and their personal items sitting on the desk,’ he said. ‘There’s a false sense of security by students living in residence halls.’

In a statement on the BUPD website, Chief Thomas Robbins called the BU community policing model ‘a forum for students, faculty, and staff to interact with officers and solve problems together on issues of public safety and security.’

To that end, BUPD has enacted a new security measure called Tip411. This program allows students to send anonymous text messages to the BUPD should something suspicious occur on campus, according to the website.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘