Campus Security braced for the imminent nonsense of Bermuda Shorts Day and thievery was abundant in this special, two-month Campus Security report.
The university, which holds a liquor licence that is split between five groups including the Students’ Union, is setting up the 2,300 capacity beer gardens in MacEwan Hall and has distributed roughly 9,000 wristbands to students this week. Eleven campus security officers and 12 pay-duty Calgary Police will be patrolling BSD this year, on the lookout for the usual low-grade criminality of open alcohol, as well as the biggest concern of drinking and driving. In order to deal with this, the SU advertises against such activity and the Calgary Police will set up checkstops after the event and park a checkstop bus on campus for the event’s duration, as well as a large banner to advertise this.
“The whole purpose is to prevent people from drinking and driving as opposed to catch people drinking and driving,” said Campus Security director Lanny Fritz.
This year, no guests will be allowed to attend the annual party. It is expected this will significantly reduce the potential for problems.
“Our past experience with assaults and disturbances during Bermuda Shorts Day would indicate that the majority involve people from off campus,” said Fritz.
Fritz noted there had not been too many major concerns over the last few years and that the most persistent problem associated with BSD is excessive alcohol consumption. He explained that Campus Security’s protocol for dealing with such a situation is to contact EMS and let them determine if the individual can be left in the care of a sober friend or if a hospital visit is required.
While the preparations for BSD were underway, the usual campus crime continued to occur.
In Feb., an employee of one of the food outlets on campus got into trouble for sending threatening e-mails to a major TV network based in Toronto. The individual identified themselves and their place of work to the network, which then contacted Campus Security. The individual failed to comply with Campus Security’s demand to cease the inappropriate correspondence and the matter was turned over to Calgary Police.
“He e-mailed just to remind them that he was the rightful owner of the television network,” said Fritz.
In accordance with standard security issues around campus, a number of laptops were stolen in the last two months. One such incident occurred in the MacKimmie Library Tower, where the victim left his belongings to get a coffee, during which time his laptop was stolen. Fritz noted that these thefts are extremely common on campus.
“The campus has experienced laptop thefts every month of this past year,” he said. “The method of operation continues to be [thieves] watching students who leave their work area or study area for, typically, a coffee break or a washroom break, at which time the thieves will run off with their computer. These thefts usually take place in a matter of seconds after students leave the area.”
Fritz suggested students should not leave their laptops unattended.
An engineering student suffered the theft of $1,700 from his locker in Feb. Fritz explained the man had taken the money out of the bank and placed it in his backpack, which he then placed in his locker, from which both bag and money were stolen.
Another theft involved multiple individuals breaking into a contractor’s van and running away with cash from the van when the contractor confronted them.
During Mar., Campus Security witnessed, via closed circuit television, two individuals acting suspiciously near a car parked in a residence parking lot. When they arrived to investigate, the individuals fled and Campus Security saw that the air had been let out of the car’s tires. The owner of the car was contacted but had no idea who would have committed the act. Fritz suggested that such an occurrence wouldn’t necessarily result in action being taken against the perpetrators if it was deemed a joke, and no damage was done.
Mar. hosted an additional prank as someone discharged a fire extinguisher in Kananaskis Hall. Residents of the building thought that the chemical released was smoke and pulled the fire alarm.
“It really is an inconvenience when you think of the degree of contamination that results from this fire extinguisher that gets circulated through the air,” said Fritz.
There were 14 motor vehicle collisions on campus during the past two months–not surprising, he noted.
“We have 8,000 motor vehicles parked on campus on a regular academic day,” he said. “We probably have two or three dozen crashes a year.”
In most cases, no one is hurt.
Total losses were $31,055 for Feb. and $23,818 for Mar.