Home > News > Uneventful week in university crime
Uneventful week in university crime
BY SARA JOCHEMS
STATESMAN STAFF WRITER
ISSUE: 78/20
A pleasant surprise for Sgt. Tim LeGarde and university police was that there was not a lot of illegal activity that took place over the weekend. “When I came in from the weekend and opened up my e-mail, I was expecting for there to be more reports than what I did find myself looking at,” LeGarde said. This past weekend, eight underage consumption tickets were issued: two on the night of Friday, Feb. 8 and six on Saturday, Feb. 9, according to LeGarde.
Based on the reports, one of the individuals was sent to detox. “I would presume that this person had a pretty high PBT count and that he/she was not able to care for themselves,” LeGarde said. According to LeGarde, another one of Saturday’s tickets pertained to a phone call that was made in Griggs P. “Someone called after hearing a couple arguing,” LeGarde said. “Luckily nothing physical took place between the two. The boyfriend was just sent away because he was of age, and she was given the ticket.”
Being pro-active is something that LeGarde and university police want to do to keep some sense of order on campus. “Not every weekend, but most weekends we [university police] have a housing patrol schedule,” he said. LeGarde said that housing patrol includes officers having five-hour shifts. Officers go through the numerous UMD housing facilities to make sure everything is OK.
This past weekend, a couple of university police officers, even though they were not scheduled to, patrolled campus housing. “They took it upon themselves to make sure everything was OK,” LeGarde said. “We want to make sure everyone knows that we are around 24/7, if they ever need us.” LeGarde explained that the university police do not have a set schedule because otherwise things could get “predictable.”
“People are more likely to be careful and not do things if they are unaware of our presence,” he said.
Sara Jochems is at
joch0019@d.umn.edu.
