As expected, the first full month of the academic year saw an uptick in crime from the summer lull, bringing the total number of crimes reported to the Department of Public Safety up to 43 for the month. A number of off-campus crimes occurred in September as well, including a burglary, a number of iPhone robberies, and a robbery of an armored car.

Here’s a rundown of some of the crimes that were reported to DPS:

• A suspect was found to be in possession of a dangerous weapon when it was determined that he had three machetes. (Sounds like he came prepared for any potential burglaries on campus.)
• Two assaults on a police officer occurred in September, one of which happened during the protest of Álvaro Uribe’s guest lecture.
• Nine drug violations were discovered by DPS, of which nearly half took place over the second weekend of September.
• A total of 13 thefts were reported to DPS, including a bike stolen from inside the Mortara Center, as well as an unattended computer and wallet  taken in Lauinger Library.
• Two lewd incidents were reported, including one about a male fondling himself in front of a student.

[Editor's Note: Due to technical problems, we couldn't compile September's crimes onto a map this morning. Once we work out the kinks, we promise to add it to the post.]

View Campus Crime Map: June 2010 in a larger map

Continued a trend of low crime rates during the summer, Georgetown saw minimal criminal activity in the month of June. Although June’s Daily Crime Log listed an increase number of crimes compared to May, the 22 reported crimes is still the second-lowest rate of 2010. June saw two violent crimes—an assault against a DPS officer in pursuit of a suspect, and a simple assault in Village C West—in addition to a slew of thefts, burglaries, and one good-old-fashioned drug violation.

• Twelve thefts occurred in or around campus. In all cases except for one (in which the suspect was trying to steal bicycle parts in Red Square), no witnesses observed the crimes and no suspects have been identified. The most noteworthy theft? A suspect stole a plasma television from the Medical School.
• A suspect, who was later arrested, assaulted a DPS officer after fleeing the scene of a theft. (Likely involving the aforementioned bicycle parts in Red Square).
• Four burglaries happened last month, including the one on 36th Street that led to a Public Safety Alert. According to the Log, another burglary occurred the same day on the same block, yet DPS did not issue a PSA. In another incident, a suspect broke a window in the IDEAA office, only to leave without stealing anything.
• A drug violation went down in a University townhouse, where apparently students used “an illegal substance.” We’re shocked!
• An identified suspect “drove through an armored gate” in the Leavey Center parking lot, while someone else threw a brick through a car window in the McDonough lot. Destruction of property and parking lots—a match made in heaven.

View Campus Crime Map: May 2010 in a larger map

The Department of Public Safety’s Daily Crime Log only listed fifteen crimes for the month of May—a low for 2010. But, May saw one serious crime—an unknown suspect assaulted two DPS officers during the Reggae Tent party held in McDonough Gymnasium during Senior Week. Otherwise, a flurry of thefts and burglaries occurred across campus, with fraud, unlawful entry, and public indecency thrown in for good measure. Here’s the breakdown of last month’s crimes:

• According to the DPS Crime Log, the suspect who assaulted the two DPS officers was identified and charged with assault. When reached for comment, Public Safety Associate Director Joseph Smith wrote, “It would be inappropriate for me to comment at this time.” DPS and MPD are currently investigating the case, but we promise to publish details about the assaults as they emerge.
• Seven thefts occurred on and around campus in May. In all cases, no witnesses observed the crimes and no suspects have been identified. Oddly enough, the report includes a case of stolen “cooking utensils.” Must be some expensive utensils.
• Two burglaries occurred, one of which Vox reported late last week. In the other case, a laptop was stolen from an unsecured room in Village C West.
• DPS caught two people publicly urinating last month in Village A, and then outside of McDonough Gymnasium a few days later during the aforementioned Reggae Tent party.
• An unknown suspect(s) fraudulently used a credit card at Epicurean.
• Someone decided to take a unlawful stroll through the Gervase Building around 4 a.m. on the 16th, only to be identified by DPS after exiting.

View Campus Crime Watch: March 2010 in a larger map

With 34 total crimes listed in the Department of Public Safety Daily Crime Log for the month, March saw a high number of burglaries, at least three violent crimes, and a number of thefts. Here’s how crimes listed in the log broke down:

• This month, we reported six burglaries on and near the Georgetown campus, including one reported by MPD but not DPS. The DPS log records nine burglaries. PSAs were sent out for five of them, but three incidents in which suspects may have entered with the intention of theft were not publicized by DPS.

  On March 15, the same day DPS reported two burglaries on 37th Street, a suspect stole a Playstation 3 from a residence on the 3600 block of Prospect Street at 4:41 p.m. Food items were also reported stolen from a residence on that block at 9 p.m. on the same day. On March 16, computers and a gaming system were reported stolen from a Village A apartment.

  These cases may bring the total number of March break-ins in Georgetown to a whopping nine. It is not clear whether residences were locked or unlocked in these situations. In each case, the suspect remains at large.

  Thefts from a locker room in McDonough Gymnasium on March 18 were recorded as a burglary. On March 31, a student in Village C East found a man “wandering around in her bathroom,” who fled the scene before DPS arrived.

• There was one reported case of sexual assault this month, on the 1400 block of 36th Street on March 19. A female student alleged that a male she knows sexually assaulted her. The case is being handled by the Metropolitan Police Department.

  This is one of the few, if not the only case of alleged sexual assault by an acquaintance that has been reported in a DPS log going back over a year.

• DPS listed five drug violations, which is still high for Georgetown if we’re using the last twelve months as precedent. But it’s come down off its high of 12 drug violations in February.

  Assistant Director of the Public Safety Department Andrew Powell confirmed that a March 19 drug violation was the incident in which a student claimed to have witnessed questionable DPS officer behavior.

  Powell said he could not confirm whether or not the student had filed a complaint about the officers, whom she claims swore at and threatened a student they had arrested. If a complaint was filed, he wrote in an e-mail, DPS’s internal investigatory unit would determine whether the officers’ conduct warranted disciplinary action.

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View February 2010 Crime Map in a larger map

February wasn’t a very criminal month at Georgetown. There were 25 crimes recorded in the Department of Public Safety Daily Crime Log, but nearly half of those were drug violations. There were two very violent crimes, however, one simple assault, and one sexual assault. Here’s the breakdown:

• There weren’t as many thefts in February as Georgetown usually sees recorded in a month. Only five thefts took place. A bicycle tire, a coat containing a scarf, an iPod, and cash, a wallet, the contents of a backpack, including a laptop, and a cellphone SIM card were the items stolen.

• Unusually, there were quite a number of drug violations at Georgetown last month. A grand total of 12 drug violations were recorded in February, far and away the most of any month in the DPS logs online. Earlier this month, readers pointed out to us that the spike coincided with the Voice cover story about Georgetown’s relatively lenient punishments for drug use.

• A sexual assault occurred this month at the Georgetown University Hospital in which an assailant touched a victim inappropriately and was arrested by the Metropolitan Police Department. MPD has not responded to several requests for more details about the assault, and DPS has referred Vox to the Hospital’s security.

• There was one simple assault at Georgetown at 36th and N Streets, in which two male students sent another student to the emergency room. The suspected assailants were identified and the case has been turned over to MPD.

• Two incidents of harassment occurred in which a complainant received threatening notes in Copley Hall and another received threatening notes in Darnall Hall.

• There was one case of unlawful entry recorded this month, in which an individual who had been barred from campus before was found in McCarthy Hall and was arrested and charged with unlawful entry.

• There was one case of public indecency, in which an individual was caught publicly urinating.

View January 2010 Crime Map in a larger map

January was a particularly violent month at Georgetown. Not because the number of crime incidents surged—there were 29 crimes reported for January in the Department of Public Safety’s Daily Crime log, which is about even with September and November, and nowhere near October, when 52 crimes were reported—but because the number of more serious incidents increased from months where there were a comparable number of crimes.

• Two assaults occurred on campus this month. The first was the incident Vox reported on in which a female student assaulted another with her keys after he broke up with her. The second occurred in Reynolds on a Thursday night, and ended with the complainant being treated in the emergency room for head injuries.

• A hit-and-run occurred at the Prospect Street gate which did not end in a trip to the emergency room.

• One robbery occurred in which the complainant was pushed into a wall and cash was stolen from her.

• Three cases of harassment were reported this month. In one, a student in Copley Hall received notes with offensive language; in another, someone received profane and harassing text messages; in the third case, someone in the New South Facilities building received annoying radio transmissions. All three cases are under investigation.

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View December Campus Crime Watch in a larger map

With students clearing out from campus before the month was over, December saw little crime. Only 14 crimes were reported all month, versus 52 in October and 28 in November, and there were no crimes reported after December 17. Here’s a breakdown of what was in the Department of Public Safety’s Daily Crime Log:

• There were four thefts at Georgetown in December. A wallet was stolen from a locker in Leo’s, a laptop was taken from Lauinger Library, a scarf was stolen from an office in Gervase, and a wallet was taken from a purse in the Hospital. In none of these cases were there any witnesses or suspects.

• Despite being a calm month, December did see one more serious crime, a case of simple assault at Lauinger Library. On December 8, at 2:50 p.m., a victim was hit in the chest several times by an unknown man, who fled the scene before he could be identified. Public Safety Department Associate Director Joseph Smith has not responded to requests for details about a description of the suspect, but we will let you know once he does.

• Two instances of destruction of property took place last month. On December 10, graffiti was discovered in Henle. (Again, we will let you know if Smith comments on the nature of the graffiti). In the other case, a car window was smashed in in the Southwest Quad parking garage.

• The fire in the New South dormitory made the log. DPS described its cause as “electrical outlet overload.”

• Two drug violations occurred in December. In both cases, DPS found marijuana in Harbin Hall. The log doesn’t indicate whether any students were present when the drugs were found, but if they are anything like their famous Harbin predecessor, they didn’t inhale.

• Two instances of “lewd, indecent, or obscene acts”—that is, men publicly urinating—showed up in the December log, one in Village A and one in Alumni Square.

• There was one case of fraud, in which someone seems to have used a book store gift card that wasn’t theirs, and one case of unlawful entry, in which a woman loitering in Dahlgren Chapel was barred from campus.

Now that we’re keeping an updated campus crime map, we figured at the end of every month we should give you a roundup of what (and how many) crimes have been committed on campus over the past month. Here’s what happened this July:

View Georgetown Voice Crime Map: July 2009 in a larger map

The Department of Public Safety finally updated their July Daily Crime Log yesterday, so we have all the data about campus crime this July. Last week Georgetown Metropolitan noted that the wider Georgetown neighborhood saw a bit of a crime spike this July, and it seems like that trend held for the University as well.

There were 29 incidents recorded in the DPS log during July, 53% more than June’s 19 incidents and 61% more than May’s 18 incidents. Here’s how the crime broke down this past month:

• If you’re looking for a cause of the campus crime spike, the answer is probably the huge increase in thefts. During July there were 24 thefts. That represents a 118% increase over June’s 11 thefts and a 200% increase over May’s 8 thefts. Earlier this month we noticed that there were a couple burglary sprees in the Southwest Quad—8 of the 24 thefts occurred in the Quad.
• One reported incident of disorderly conduct.
• One reported forcible entry into Maguire Hall (nothing was stolen).
• One reported assault.
• One reported sexual assault, the alleged rape which we reported on.
• One reported case of fraud perpetrated against the bookstore.

While most of the reported thefts involved cash, computers, bicycles or electronics like cameras and iPods, there was one curious case from July 22nd of a box of cherry hardwood flooring reportedly being stolen from the Harbin Garage. And unlike most of the other thefts, this case was actually classified as closed. How’d DPS solve it? According to the log, “Case closed after audit showed no missing materials.”

Now that we’re keeping an updated campus crime map, we figured at the end of every month we should give you a roundup of what (and how many) dastardly deeds were committed on campus over the past month. Here’s what happened this June:

View Georgetown Voice Crime Map: June 2009 in a larger map

Like May, June was a quiet month for Georgetown, with a total of 19 on-campus incidents reported in the DPS log. They breakdown as follows:

• 11 thefts
• 6 cases of unlawful entry or trespassing
• 1 case of destruction of property
• 1 case of threats

Probably the most intriguing incident of the month is the case of threats, for which the DPS log entry reads as follows:

June 12, 2009. 8:03 p.m.
Leavey Center—GUASFCU
Suspect threatened complainant over phone. Suspect identified. MPD notified.

We asked GUASFCU CEO Justin Lo Iacono about the incident, but he said that “the credit union does not discuss member details with the press, as all member details are confidential.”

The 11 cases of theft were mostly standard stuff (bicycles, wallets, electronics, laptops, etc), but there were a couple odd ones. On June 11, DPS reports the theft of “an electronic game and cord” from McCarthy Hall. On the 20th, someone stole hubcaps from a vehicle in the Southwest Quad Garage.

View Georgetown Voice Crime Map: April 2009 in a larger map

The April crime map

For our summer project, Vox has decided to start maintaining a campus crime map.  We’ll be using the information from DPS’s digital crime log to create a visualization of campus incidents for each month.  We’ll check the logs daily for updates and, if we do additional reporting on the crime, we’ll include links to our coverage as well.

You can get to the crime map by clicking on its tab in between “Home” and “Links” at the top of the page. On that page you can find small, embedded versions of the maps, as well as links to the larger, more viewer-friendly versions.

Right now, we have complete crime maps from April and May posted.  With the campus virtually uninhabited for a good portion of the month, it’s not suprising that May was a slow month for crime.  The DPS log shows just eight thefts, five incidents of suspicious or mischievous conduct or unlawful entry, two small fires, two incidents of destruction of property and one report of possible drug use for May.

April (shown above), on the other hand, was a much busier month for campus criminals, with DPS reporting 14 incidents of suspicious or mischievous conduct or unlawful entry, 14 cases of destruction of property, 13 thefts, 8 possible or confirmed reports of drug violations (only one of which was from 4/20), 3 cases of harassment, 2 assaults, 2 suspects apprehended and one case of check fraud.

April ended with something of a crime spike, with 23 DPS log entries for the last week of the month—5 more than were reported for the entire month of May.  This uptick may have had something to do with Georgetown Day weekend (April 24—26), which saw crimes like an attempted theft of a cake from Leo’s and someone throwing eggs at Harbin.