By Вen Li
It’s been a busy two months for Campus Security.
Approximately $18,900 worth of property was pilfered from campus in April, up from $1,085 from March.
"We had a projector theft on April 29 in Science Theatres valued at more than $9,000," said Campus Security Manager Lanny Fritz. "An alarm scared off an attempted projector theft the week before."
According to Fritz, thefts of projectors have cost the university $78,599.51 since February 2000.
Campus Security officers were also kept busy during Bermuda Shorts Day.
"BSD was a little more active this year," said Fritz. "Dispatch calls increased to 363, up from about 200 in 1999."
Emergency Medical Services were also called to campus on four separate occasions to treat injured or intoxicated individuals, one of whom fell off a speaker and suffered a head laceration.
"An engineering student [also] head-butted a police officer," said Fritz. "The reveler who was openly consuming alcohol was asked to pour it out and became argumentative and was taken down to the police station."
Fritz noted that efforts by the Students’ Union, the Calgary Police Service, Campus Security and resumption of transit service on BSD minimized intoxicated driving.
"We had the CheckStop banner and two marked police cars strategically placed," said Fritz. "There were 300 vehicles on campus at 3 a.m. but no people. I am not aware of any CheckStop arrests."
Officers arrested a male with a large quantity of marijuana and turned over another discovered quantity with no owner to CPS. Celebrants with small amounts of marijuana were asked to extinguish their cigarettes.
Harassment issues busied Campus Security as well.
"E-mail harassment is an issue that has become a little more frequent," said Fritz. "Typically it centers around harassment of old boyfriends or girlfriends and in some cases against teaching staff where people are unhappy with their marks."
Campus Security successfully dealt with an off-campus student who sent harassing e-mails threatening to disrupt a class.
Fritz suggests keeping passwords and Personal Identification Numbers private to avoid incidents with ex-partners.
Meanwhile, Campus Security is developing a program called the Computer Assisted Tracking System to enhance safety and security.
"CATS is an in-house computer program that will allow our officers and dispatchers to access important information much more quickly. For example, in the case of a water leak, instead of finding the person responsible for the building or room in a binder, we can type it into the computer," said Fritz.
Campus Security officers also engaged in bicycle and first aid training in April.