Throughout the past week Georgetown students have been plagued by a series of burglaries throughout campus. Preying on unlocked offices and resident halls, what is suspected to be a single group of thieves has made off with a variety of valuables, including wallets, cell phones and laptops.

DPS has put considerable effort into tracking down the perpetrators, who, according to DPS Chief of Police Jay Gruber, have been active at numerous college campuses throughout the District, including American University . “We have quite a few leads and we are working with other university police departments in the District,” said Gruber. “We know who some of these suspects are. It’s just a matter of finding them on our campus and placing them under arrest.”

College campuses are an ideal niche for thieves such as these to operate: the isolated nature of campus life creates a false sense of security that prompts students to leave valuable devices unattended and their doors unlocked.

Burglars, says Gruber, are all too aware of this. This most recent string of thefts is one in a long line campus burglaries carried out by individuals who raid residence halls because they are low-risk, high-profit goldmines of high-demand commodities such as laptops.

“We want to make the university a harder target,” said Gruber. “I can’t put a fence around the university with locks on it. I’m depending on people in residence halls not to allow people in they don’t know. I’m counting on people to lock their doors.”

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In Copley Hall around 3 p.m. today, students reported that laptops and cell phones were stolen from their dorm rooms. The students left their room temporarily and returned to a room devoid of electronic equipment.

In the past month, the Department of Public Safety Chief Jay Gruber began promoting a software called LoJack that can track the location of a stolen laptop. DPS launched a campaign, setting up in the front entrance to Lauinger Library, to educate students on the best ways to prevent laptop theft in the library or in residence halls given the frequency of these burglaries.

In the month of October, there were 35 crimes reported to DPS, six of which were laptop thefts. LoJack and the University are partnering to decrease the cost of the tracking software from $40 to $13.95 per year. Then of course there are cheaper options, like gluing your laptop to the table. Though perhaps not as effective.

Unbeknownst to most of the Georgetown community, the laptop theft prevention initiative undertaken by DPS is actually just a clever ruse to prepare students for the responsibilities that come with adulthood.

Assistant Leisure Editor Julia Lloyd-George makes a valid point, but even under in communist states, citizens could recognize a system that has little institutional legitimacy.

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Recently, the Department of Public Safety has begun a laptop security campaign in response to a dramatic rise in the number of stolen laptops this month. In 2012, an average of four laptops have been stolen per month, but, over the past two weeks, seven laptops have been stolen.

Not surprisingly, of the laptops reported stolen to DPS, Lauinger Library and the Hariri Building are the most common locations for laptop theft. MSBros, it seems, get up to use their free printing quite a bit.

In actuality, though, theft is most likely to occur when a laptop is left unattended in a public space, usually in study areas.

In their campaign, DPS has offered a discount for students who want to purchase LoJack, a service that will secure private information as well as work with the police to restore stolen laptops. However, if you aren’t willing to spring the $13.95, a variety of free software services, such as preyproject.com, are available online.

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Saturday night, at Club Lau, a student was arrested and escorted off Healy Lawn by three police officers. The incident occurred a little after 11 p.m.

During the event, another student working for the Department of Public Safety officers said a freshman was harassing people in line. A girl in line asked him to leave, but he refused. She notified a DPS officer that the student was causing a significant disturbance and the officer took him out of line, arresting and handcuffing him.

Stephanie Hughes, Executive Assistant to the University Librarian, said that in general the event was the “most successful” of Club Lau parties, with approximately 1,800 attendees.

“We implemented several changes to the event this year that greatly helped the crowd waiting outside. In addition to the barriers to help form the line, we began the line further back from the building,” Hughes wrote in an email to Vox. She added that the line outside Club Lau began a little after 9:15 p.m.

“We are thrilled that we are able to encourage students to have fun on campus and were very pleased with the success of the party,” Hughes wrote.

DPS could not be reached for comment on the reason and circumstance of the incident.

Photo by Heather Regen

Jay Gruber, Assistant Director of Public Safety and Assistant Chief of Police at the University of Maryland, will assume his position as Georgetown’s next Department of Public Safety Chief of Police, effective July 30, 2012. Erik Smulson, Vice President for Public Affairs, announced the new Chief of Police in an email earlier today.

The news comes about two weeks after an announcement from Smulson that DPS Chief Rocco DelMonaco would resign by the end of June.

Gruber is also a University of Maryland graduate, with a bachelor’s degree in law enforcement and a master’s in applied management. Alongside his extensive background experience in the field of criminal justice, he completed a graduate certificate in Homeland Security Management. He is also an FBI Police Executive Fellow.

“Jay understands the unique dynamics facing university campuses, and I am confident that he will be an excellent leader for the Department of Public Safety and a contributing member of the Georgetown community,” Smulson said in the email. As of now, there’s no promise that we’ll get to see a continuation of Rocky’s Reports.

Photo from Educause

At some point between 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. this evening, a residence in Kennedy Hall was burglarized, as jewelry, clothing and money were taken from the student’s room. The public safety alert describes the incident as “unforced”, suggesting that the door of the room was not locked.

No suspects or witnesses have been identified, and the Department of Public Safety and the Metropolitan Police Department are investigating the incident.

DPS requests that anyone who has information regarding this incident, or who noticed any suspects before or after the incident, to contact them immediately at (202) 687-4343.

Update, 3:28 p.m.: In a public safety alert issued this afternoon, the Department of Public Safety offered a few details about the event. The alert also notes, “additional arrests related to this case are expected.”

Original post, 12:14 p.m. In a flurry of police activity that included multiple Department of Public Safety and Metropolitan Police Department squad cars, undercover DPS officers, and one MPD helicopter providing aerial support, two individuals suspected of burglarizing St. Mary’s were arrested in Burleith late last night.

The successful night for DPS and MPD comes after a spate of burglaries and other crimes in the area. According to University spokesperson Stacy Kerr, last night’s incident began when members of DPS’s Community Action Team, who were a part of increased security measures after multiple burglaries at the Medical Center, witnessed unknown individuals leaving St. Mary’s carrying computer equipment and boxes. The DPS officers were plain-clothed and monitoring the north end of campus in unmarked vehicles.

At this point, the undercover officers contacted MPD and followed the suspects to a large SUV parked on 37th Street, just north of Reservoir Road. One suspect was arrested there at 11:07 p.m.

DPS and MPD worked together to canvas the neighborhood to locate other suspects. One resident of Burleith tweeted shortly after the first suspect was arrested that DPS was looking for two men suspected of burglarizing St. Mary’s. Around this time, MPD also dispatched a helicopter with a searchlight to assist the search for suspects.

Within the next hour, at 38th and T Streets NW, another suspect (pictured above) was apprehended by reimbursable detail officers from MPD that the University pays to assist neighborhood patrols. According to an undergraduate who lives nearby, the apprehending officer tackled the suspect to the ground. This suspect was held on the curb on T Street for over an hour, during which time police searched a bag they found with the suspect and discovered a large roll of duct tape among other items.

DPS continues to work with MPD on this ongoing investigation. Several computers and other equipment were recovered by police during the incident.

Photo: Jackson Perry

Update, 1:20 p.m., February 4: According to the Department of Public Safety daily crime log for Wednesday, DPS officers “responded to a verbal altercation which escalated into physical contact between an affiliate and his spouse” at New South at approximately 11:17 p.m. The report classifies the incident as “domestic violence.”

Original post, 1:54 a.m., February 3: After an incident on Wednesday night that involved Emmanuel Kornyo and his wife and provoked a 911 call, Kornyo is no longer the Chaplain-in-Residence on the third floor of New South Hall and his biography has been removed from the University’s website. According to a resident of the floor, Kornyo left the building at approximately 6 p.m. Thursday night and his name has been removed from the door of his former apartment.

Shortly before 3 p.m. Thursday, residents of the third floor received an email (excerpted here) from hall director James Lorello, informing them that they would not have a Chaplain-in-Residence for the time being:

As you may know an incident did occur last night on your floor related to our chaplain in residence.

I wanted to reach out to inform everyone that the situation has been taken care of and that everything is fine. For the time being there will be no Chaplain on the third floor. I apologize that I can not give more details about this incident but you can trust that everything has been dealt with.

Lorello’s email concluded by providing the contact information of Assistant Director of Residence Life Katie Heather and Director of the GU Women’s Center Laura Kovach.

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Shortly before noon yesterday, a Georgetown employee reported to the Department of Public Safety that a laptop computer had been stolen from his office, according to a DPS public safety alert. DPS’s initial investigation showed that forced entry had been made to steal the laptop, which had been on the desk. The employee told DPS that he had left his office Monday afternoon around 1:00 p.m., returning Tuesday morning at 11:45 a.m. to discover the theft.

A nearby office was also burglarized, but nothing was taken. There are no known suspects in the incident.

DPS requests that anyone who has information regarding this incident or who noticed any suspects before or after the incident, to contact them immediately at (202) 687-4343.