December 1, 2005
UW Police aim to inform building managers
A purse was stolen from Kane Hall sometime between 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 31.
Of course, the University Police know about such incidents. But now Kane’s building coordinator will regularly learn of them, too — and more — through the new Building Watch Program.
Building Watch is a new effort by the UW Police designed to increase communication with campus building coordinators and give them a clear picture of the type and frequency of crimes that happen in their area. The reports started in November, and will be sent out monthly via e-mail.
“In short, it’s just the information we have compiled over the last month,” said April Lesho, an officer with the UW Police’s Crime Prevention Unit, who has helped make the plan a reality. “Each time an officer makes a report, it will be documented in the system, and the information relayed to the building coordinators.”
Lesho said the idea had come up before, but a change in personnel kept it from being implemented. She thought to resurrect the plan while she was working in another capacity for the police. “I was on the road before I got this assignment and I spoke to the building coordinator for the HUB and he had mentioned it’d be nice,” she said. It made “perfect sense” to keep people informed in this way, she said.
The information is not building-specific so much as based on 10 main areas of campus. Kane Hall, for instance, is part of “Group B, Zone 6,” and is grouped with nearby buildings: Allen, Suzzallo and the Odegaard Undergraduate libraries, Gerberding, Meany halls and the Henry Art Gallery.
Linda Kemnitzer, coordinator for Kane Hall, applauded the idea. “It’s good because sometimes as building coordinator, unless someone comes to you and tells you about (a crime), you don’t know about it — especially if other tenants in the building go directly to the police.” With the new reports, she said, she can learn more about what crimes occur in her area, which helps in prevention.
Lesho said she hopes to improve the monthly report soon by including comparative crime numbers from the same period last year, not unlike a power bill comparing usage from year to year.
The UW Police now have two crime prevention officers, Lesho said — herself and Garnell Stewart — which gave her time to get the new program up and running. “With me coming back (to crime prevention), it freed up more time to start the program that we’d been thinking about,” she said. “We plan on running it for as long as possible.”
And if anyone needs additional information about crime on campus, she said, “Just give us a call.”
The University Police are at 206-543-0507, or online at www.washington.edu/admin/police.
