Crime Plummets in Brockport
By Paul Cifonelli, Bridgette Babb, Hannah Danielski and Alaina Jonathan
BROCKPORT, NY- In a college town it is just generally assumed that police officers have a difficult job. Making arrests and writing tickets is expected to be the norm. However, The College at Brockport and the village of Brockport are different.
According to city-data.com, the crime rate in Brockport has gone down every year with the exception of two years since 2009. In 2013 and 2015 there were spikes in crime rate, only to fall back down in 2014 and 2016.
University Police‘s (UP) efforts can be largely attributed to the decrease in crime rate. In a college town a lot of the crime will involve college students partying and drinking. Lieutenant Dennis Price admitted that this is how many of tickets are given out.
“It’s most common to happen on the weekend with the partying,” Price said. “Whether it’s in the dorms or the streets surrounding the college.”
Many major crimes such as rapes, murders and arson have gone down or away completely as the crime rate has dropped. However, thefts and burglaries have gone down slightly over the same time period. Officer Price also recognizes that UP cannot handle every campus-related crime on their own.
“For example, when the Delts got raided last year, that’s when we (UP and Monroe County Sheriffs) would work together since it was a community and college issue,” Price said.
Crime on the campus or around the campus makes up a good chunk of the crime in the village. According to Price, open container tickets, possession of marijuana tickets and parking tickets on or near campus are the most common crimes committed. Along with the UP and Monroe County Sheriffs, the campus’ Safe Ride program has employees that are on the lookout for those things. Some of these are students at the college.
Safe Ride is designed to get students to and from places on campus safely. The drivers can go to all corners of campus but are not supposed to leave campus to pick people up. While they are not supposed to be looking out for people with open containers, they are supposed to bring people to the UP station if someone underage gets into a Safe Ride vehicle with an open container. Safe Ride employee Amanda Angotti touched on the job of a driver.
“We are allowed to take down students’ names if we catch them with an open container…but that’s not a part of our job,” Angotti said.
The town’s peace can be disrupted by intoxicated college students, specifically on the weekend. Safe Ride can help to take some of the chaos off the streets and prevent UP from issuing tickets. Fellow Safe Ride employee Alexis Hayden spoke about the responsibility of the employees.
“They’re calling us to get a safe ride home,” Hayden said.
Combining UP’s and Safe Ride’s efforts to keep the town safe, crime has decreased in Brockport. While crime will be unavoidable in a college town, the efforts of those with power have kept it under control.
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