Campus Police Pay Close Attention to Village Apartments

By Tina Ray
Opinion Editor

The campus police have been called to the Village Apartments on different occasions throughout this academic year, according to the campus crime report, for reasons that include:

• a report of property damage on Feb. 18
• three men charged with breaking and entering on Feb. 18
• two students charged on a state level for affray on Feb. 20
• a driver parked outside the apartments charged with driving while impaired on Feb. 22

With these problems in mind, Chief Helton has hired a new officer and requested yet another to patrol the apartment complex, according to Lieutenant McDuffie Cummings, who has been with the campus police department for nine years. In the meantime, there are preventive measures to take to avoid being the victim or the perpetrator of a crime at Village Apartments.

“The best preventive measure is to pick up the phone and call the police department. Don’t get involved in domestic disputes. Make the school aware you’re having problems and let them intervene,” said Cummings.

If not, the penalty for an infraction could “ include paying a fine, doing community service or both,” according to Cummings.

The problems at the Village Apartments are not isolated events, but symptomatic of a growing student population; nevertheless, it’s fast becoming disheartening to read about criminal incidents that take place there. Society has stipulations for those who want to live within its confines and those stipulations also apply to the residents and visitors to the Village Apartments.