Prairie Crossing Apartments has the highest rate of reported crimes of all the housing used by the University according to University Police Department statistics.
Records show that 14 reports were filed involving crimes at Prairie Crossing and Whitley Hall is a close second with 12.
Even before the UPD started patrolling Prairie Crossing, Lt. Jason Bone said the complex had and issue with crime.
Now that the University completely owns the Prairie Crossing Apartments, it is more their responsibility to police it.
Bone said there are many different reasons why crime at this apartment complex is bad. He said there have been various problems with drugs there, but cites one reason as, probably, the main source.
“It’s poorly designed, from a crime prevention point of view,” Bone said. “There are all kinds of little corners and alcoves that people can hide in.”
He contrasted Prairie Crossing to Smith Hall. Since it is more of a courtyard type building, it is easy to view one area of the building from many different viewpoints.
“Smith Hall, it’s a big square,” Bone said. “You can see all the way down this hall, all the way down this hall, all the way down this hall. Prairie Crossing is different. You can’t see a long distance really in that place at all.”
Bone also said that any major crimes that occur at universities happen in parking garages, which Prairie Crossing has for its residents.
“It’s obviously unfortunate in the sense that, overall, I want the campus to be safe, particularly where my students are,” Dr. Raymond Green, associate professor of psychology and the director of the Honors Program said.
He also said that, since the entire apartment building just came under university control, the alarming statistic made sense. Now that campus police are patrolling the building, Green feels it is much safer.
“I know that since it has become a university building, there
has been a fantastic campus security presence here,” Green said. “Even though it worries me now, I have really good faith that a year from now we won’t even be talking about it.”
One worry associated with a high crime rate is its attraction to potential residents dwindling.
“If we publicize it a lot, crime is a word that scares people,” Green said. “Luckily, the crimes have been largely petty crimes. Not violent crimes, which that would be a big difference. Yeah, it could take some of the shine off of things, but with a straight face I, at the same time, feel I can tell the parents that campus security is doing everything in its power to create a safer environment for the students.”
Honors College students began living in Prairie Crossing in the fall of 2007. Green said that although he is sure the city of Commerce had it available, crime data for that building was not taken into consideration.
“If I thought it was a major threat, I wouldn’t be pushing people to live here,” Green said. “There was a spurt of car break-ins in the past month, but if you go back past there we had, last fall, a series of muggings outside in the streets there and one inside the courtyard here. I think we have to be careful not to get a little bit of an illusory correlation of the most recent data coloring the big, big picture.”
According to Green, although it should not be covered up and forgotten, this crime problem needs to be kept in perspective and not sensationalized based on recent issues.
Both Bone and Green stressed improvement in crime prevention, which should be occurring over the next several months. One solution, which was highlighted by both, is installing security cameras. The biggest issue with tackling crime is the high cost.
There are cameras in Prairie Crossing, but mostly around the office area, and Bone said he did not know how good it was.
“Hopefully we will start seeing changes pretty quick,” Bone said. “Again, it’s going to cost money to do all this stuff. I don’t know what the funding level is. I’d like to see a surveillance system over there.”
Improvements should come as welcoming news to Lauren Forester, an Honors College student who had her car broken into last month.
“The police department handled the situation very well,” Forester said. “We had pretty much everything sorted out by the end of the day.”
She also said that she believed Prairie Crossing was, at one point, unsafe for students.
“Now that they actually own the entire complex, it’s getting better,” Forester said. “The idea of security cameras being put in there is a very good idea considering how close it is to the very far end of campus.”