Jeannine Jennette

What are the most common crimes on campus?
Burglaries and larcenies. A burglary is when something is stolen from a private space by a person assumed not to have access to that space, like a laptop stolen from our library. A larceny is when something is stolen from a public space, such as a bike from the bike rack. Nobody’s breaking down doors, it’s primarily unattended property. In the first half of this year there were 20 burglaries and 30 larcenies. The majority occur in the Presbyterian and Vanderbilt Clinic buildings, where there are more outside visitors than the rest of campus. It’s mostly laptops, purses, and dental instruments.

Dental instruments?
When I first came to the medical center in 2003, the loss of dental instruments was the biggest problem. Then the College of Dental Medicine installed a number of security cameras, and now we are able to recover the majority of the students’ instruments. Most are actually not stolen; they’re misplaced. Now when students can’t find their instruments, they come down to us right away and we review the cameras. It saves the school a lot of insurance money.

Are there crimes other than property crimes?
Besides larceny and burglary, we don’t have a large category of another type of crime. We investigate some email and phone harassment cases. Violent crime was down when I got here four years ago and it has stayed down. By mid-June 2007, we had one assault reported, and we’ve had no robberies on campus or in the surrounding area during this time.

What can faculty, staff and students do to reduce theft?
Be more cognizant of leaving property around. If you don’t leave property out there, it won’t be picked up. When I walk into an office, nine times out of 10 I can predict where a female employee has “hidden” her pocketbook in a place she thinks is safe. If it’s not actually locked up, it’s not safe.
    This also applies to the labs, which have a big problem with stolen laptops. Lock the laptop with a cable – which we sell at cost – or it will present a crime of opportunity.
Know what is in your wallet, so you can tell when something’s missing, and don’t bring all your cards with you. Some thieves will just take one credit card from your wallet and leave everything else in place. It may be hours before you notice your card is missing and in the meantime they have racked up charges. Make a few photocopies of everything in your wallet and stash the copies in safe areas, so if your wallet is stolen, you know what has been taken. Call and cancel cards right away.

What has changed about the way security operates since you arrived on campus?
We’ve installed many more cameras. We now have about 300 cameras, including cameras in front of all our housing units, on almost every floor in P&S, and in all interior and exterior entrances of all buildings at the medical center.
    I believe that the cameras are responsible for the decrease in incidents on Haven Avenue. We have blanketed the entire area with cameras and can watch a student walk all the way from the Black Building on 168th Street to the 154 Haven residence near 172nd Street. There is literally no street crime on Haven now. Criminals know we’re going to get pictures of them and they will be prosecuted, so they just don’t go there.

What about traveling to this neighborhood from other parts of the city?
We have an escort service available 24 hours a day that covers the neighborhood from 165th Street north to the George Washington Bridge. My advice is if you are heading to your uptown apartment on the subway late at night from downtown, get out at 168th Street and call one of our escorts. There is always someone available, either a Public Safety guard or officer (students are not used as escorts on the CUMC campus as they are on the Morningside campus). At night, we provide car escorts if a car is available. We also want to encourage everyone to use our escorts at any other time when they are not comfortable getting around on their own. No one should be afraid to ask for an escort. That’s what we’re here for and we don’t consider it an inconvenience. Keep in mind, however, that we aren’t a car service – no one should call us if it’s raining and they need to get to the supermarket. We are here to ensure safety for our students, staff and faculty.
    Bottom line: Be aware of your surroundings, pay attention to your instincts, and give us a call if you feel there’s something wrong.

The shootings at Virginia Tech highlighted the need for better communication between security and students, staff and faculty. What is the medical center’s security operation doing to improve such communication?
We always review our security procedures and revise them if necessary. Since the Virginia Tech shootings, we have been looking at various methods of improving communications, including text messaging. We’ve also put together guidelines to advise everyone on campus what to do if a similar situation ever happened here. Those guidelines are available at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/publicsafety/Community%20Response%20Checklist.pdf.
    The most important thing to do if you find yourself inside a building during such a situation is to lock your classroom or office door and block it with whatever is available. Most doors in our buildings are solid core, and many walls are block and brick, or masonry. This may provide some additional protection. Once the shooter has been contained, officers will start evacuating the buildings by establishing safety corridors, and this may be time consuming. Remain in secure areas until instructed otherwise.