Car thefts, weapons arrests rise in 1997

Other crimes on the decrease, report shows

By Perry Swanson
The Metropolitan

Figures from Auraria Campus Police and Security show rising crime rates  in four of 11 crime categories.

The number of robberies and vehicle thefts have doubled since last year. Arrests for weapons possession and liquor law violations have also increased.

Drug abuse violations produced the most arrests on Auraria Campus last year with 36 arrests recorded, but this number has decreased since 1996, when only 40 people were arrested. Only two people were arrested in 1994 for drugs.

Crime rates have also dropped in four other categories, including aggravated assault, burglary, sexual assault and hate crimes. Cases of murder and rape havenât been reported at Auraria in the last four years.

Campus Police Chief Joe Ortiz said visitors to the campus, not students or employees, commit most crime at Auraria.

ăGiven the number of faculty, staff and students, plus the retail businesses we have at the Tivoli, weâre the safest in the state,ä Ortiz said.

He said increases in some crimes and decreases in others are normal.

ăI think weâre pretty much a microcosm of what occurs out in the community,ä he said. ăThose things that affect the community at large at some point will affect the campus.ä

Alicia Banuelos, a 24-year-old Spanish major at Metro, said she attends classes in the daytime partly because she believes itâs safer.

ăI donât feel Iâm in danger at any time,ä Banuelos said. ăI prefer to be here in the day just because of that safety factor.ä

Ortiz backed up Banuelosâs feeling.
 

ăWe have a theater,ä he said. ăThe draw is 800 a night from the community. A lot of those (crime) statistics come from that.ä

Sean Killian, 19, who takes classes during the day, said he feels safe on campus and doesnât take any special precautions to protect himself.

ăI see campus police all over, which, I guess, gives you a sense of safety,ä Killian said.

But Kathy Devereux, 50, a graduate student at the University of Colorado at Denver takes extra precautions. She is frequently on campus after dark and said she and other women in her classes never walk alone to their cars at night.

ăI know that there are security or patrol people, but I donât see them,ä Devereux said.
But Ortiz said the officers are there.

ăDenver generally would assign one officer or maybe two officers to a geographical area that we cover, but we have as many as four and five per shift,ä Ortiz said.