Campus Security received media interest in August after an Ontario University Association statement that some universities are not completely honest about reporting all crimes. The University of Calgary voluntarily reports all crimes accurately on their website. This led to the participation of Campus Security in A-Channel News interviews, as well as a radio interview from Windsor, Ont.
“We are one of the only [universities] who report all our crime stats,” said Campus Security manager Lanny Fritz.Fritz’s experience with the Calgary Police shows that with releasing the statistics, people are more inclined to take the necessary precautions. About five years ago, he decided to adopt the same philosophy on the U of C campus, which seems to work well.
“If you keep a community informed about crimes in a particular area, it helps reduce crimes,” said Fritz.
Meanwhile, disturbing phone calls to Campus Security over the past few years have finally ended.
“Four years ago, we investigated a complaint with Calgary Police involving a serious harassment
case with a male student harassing and intimidating a female
student. The case went to non-academic misconduct and he was suspended from the university,” said Fritz.
The individual moved to Europe, but proceeded to harass Campus Security, according to Fritz. He repeatedly verbally abused them over the phone, a process
that seemed to occur whenever
he partook in a lot of drinking.
Last year, while in Edmonton, he continued to make disturbing phone calls. The suspect was tracked by police and charged with criminal harassment, after which the phone calls have ended. Over the past four
years, Campus Security had documented around 400 phone
calls allegedly from this individual.
An increasing occurrence on
campus has been the “Nigerian Letters,” sent to people on campus by e-mail. Fritz advises anyone
who receives the e-mails to delete them immediately, and not respond to them. Over the past year,
there have been at least a dozen reported incidents of this kind on campus.
The subject of the e-mail reads “Immediate Action Needed,”
sent from a person claiming to be Dr. George Koone, a “Bill and Exchange Manager” from the Foreign Remittance Department of the Bank of Africa. He proceeds to discuss a sum of $13 million U.S. belonging to one of their foreign customers, who supposedly died in 1997. In exchange for laundering the money and paying fees up-front, Koone claims the victim will receive
a 20-per-cent share. To receive
this money, the recipient has
to apply to the bank as a kin,
divulging personal information such as their bank name, account number, home phone and fax number.
Fritz advises anyone who thinks they may be a crime victim to contact Campus Security at 220-5333 or the Calgary Police Service.