Two months after a reported sexual assault, the SMU Police Department finally released sketches of three male suspects wanted in connection with the offense. The late release of these sketches, in addition to the lack of information regarding the assault when students returned to campus after winter break, is evidence that the SMU Police Department needs to seriously evaluate its crime alert policies and put the safety of students first.
Following the publication of the sketches in The Daily Campus, the SMU Police Department received eight tips regarding the case. Sgt. C.B. Rodriguez said that it isn’t “typical to release sketches right away,” and that the police waited so long to release the sketches because they were concerned they would exhaust their leads.
But it shouldn’t take two months to look into leads.
If the sketches had been released earlier, it’s likely that there would have been more tips, as more people would have remembered the suspects or other helpful details.
While there were crime alerts about the assault posted in the residence halls, there were no crime alerts posted in other buildings and parking garages. According to the SMU Police Department Web site, warnings are supposed to be posted in residence halls, dining halls, academic buildings, administrative buildings and parking garages. Considering the seriousness of this offense, Ed Board thinks that alerts should have been posted all over campus, so that students who live off-campus could be made aware of this crime as well as students who live in the residence halls.
A good way of ensuring that the entire campus is aware of a crime is via e-mail. The SMU PD’s Web site states the SMU News and Information office sends out campus wide e-mails with alert information “if deemed necessary.” We wonder why a campus-wide e-mail wasn’t sent out in this case, when, as the decision to release the sketches indicates, the police department obviously feels that people should still be concerned two months later.
The presence of campus police is undeniable; the multitudes of yellow tickets stuck to windshields prove that they are around. But Ed Board believes that the SMU Police Department is spending too much of its time and attention writing tickets and following students as they leave the library to pull them over because of an “incomplete stop” or a malfunctioning headlight and not enough time and attention making sure students are safe.
In the future, we urge the SMU Police Department to improve its communication with the student body when it comes to matters of safety. And if the police department wants to prevent more sexual assaults from occurring in the future, we suggest that they give girls walking home from the library at 2 a.m. a ride instead of slowly driving past on their way to search out parking violators.
