Earlier today, Vice President for University Safety and Chief of Department of Public Safety Rocco DelMonaco Jr. announced his decision to end his tenure at Georgetown, effective June 30. In an email from Vice President of Public Affairs Erik Smulson, during the transition period the Associate Director for DPS Joseph Smith will take over as Interim Chief until the University finds a Rocky replacement.

Back in November 2011, Vox caught wind that the University was on the search for a new chief of DPS. At the time, it was not clear whether or not the DelMonaco was set to resign.

DelMonaco has worked in DPS since June 2010. During his time, he championed a public safety newsletter to neighbors called Rocky’s Reports.

Full text of the email after the jump!

Read the rest of this entry »

We guess our student representatives figure that the time when students will need the most help schlepping around the dark streets of Georgetown is when they’re dressed like sexy bumble bees in the middle of the fall.

Earlier this week, the Georgetown University Student Association announced that, beginning during Halloween weekend, GUSA members would be driving the SafeRides vans instead of Department of Public Safety officers. This policy was conceived and implemented by former GUSA President and Vice President Calen Angert (MSB ’11) and Jason Kluger (MSB ’11) as a means of freeing up the time of DPS officers to patrol campus rather than drive the Drunk Bus. This program has been on hiatus, and will resume, under the authority of GUSA Secretary for Student Safety Charlie Joyce (COL ’12), in just a few short weeks.

At 11:00 p.m. on the evening of Monday, August 29, two students were reportedly followed and threatened by a group of seven unknown males somewhere in the vicinity of Henle Village, according to a University Public Safety Alert sent out earlier today. The group is reported as consisting of seven white males, aged in their late teens or early twenties, six of whom were wearing backwards-facing baseball hats, and at least one of whom had “blonde hair [and] light-colored eyes” and was about “6’2″, 2175 pounds, lean build, wearing khaki pants and a polo shirt.”

One of the males “threatened to assault” the students, and the two walked “quickly” towards Healy Gate. The suspects pursued them, but when they reached a parked car belonging to the Department of Public Safety, they fled in an unknown direction.

DPS asks that anyone with information regarding this incident call them as soon as possible at (212) 687-4343.

Talk about déjà vu. For the second time this summer, students living in Reynolds Hall on the Southwest Quad have reported to the Department of Public Safety that their rooms have been burgled.

The second incident, according to the University’s Public Safety Alert, occurred around 7:00 p.m., when the students arrived at their rooms and noticed “various electronic items” missing. As is the case in many on-campus burglaries (including last year’s string of laptop thefts), some of the students reported that their rooms had been unlocked at the time when the incident happened. While some others noted that they had locked their doors, none of the rooms showed any signs of forced entry.

The Department of Public Safety urges that anyone with information about these crimes contact them at (202) 687-4343. And please, everybody living on campus, lock your doors!

On Friday, June 24, several students living for the summer in the Reynolds Hall, a student dormitory located in the Southwest Quad, reported that their rooms had been burglarized. According to a Public Safety Alert sent by the University, the students entered their rooms around 3:50 p.m. and noticed money and electronics missing, with no signs of forced entry. At least some of these students admitted to having left their doors unlocked, and there were no signs of forced entry.

The Department of Public Safety requests that anyone with information on this crime call (202) 687-4343.