While recent violent and criminal activity near campus is cause for concern, whether crime is actually on the rise is debatable.

At a Feb. 13 town hall meeting addressing campus safety issues, UW Police Department Interim Chief Ray Wittmier pointed out that, while recent occurrences represent a spike in violent crime, statistics show crimes on an overall downward trend.

“These types of incidents are being reported more readily now because we’re sending out timely warnings,” said UWPD Assistant Chief Ralph Robinson at the meeting.

Robinson said that crime appears to be on the rise because of media attention.

“If you look at the numbers, our overall crime is down,” Robinson said. “What you have is a number of high profile events in a short period of time that have received a lot of attention from the news media.”

Robinson also pointed to the e-mail notifications as another factor fuelling public perception about the level of crime.

“The community percives that this is a violent area because they are simply more informed and aware of incidents that have occurred,” Robinson said.

The Seattle Police Department (SPD) and UWPD have increased patrols in the area, adding more officers and in some cases adding patrols on nights that had not previously been covered.

The increased police deployment will focus primarily on the area north of campus, home to the university’s Greek system and a number of private student residences. According to police, it is this area — with its reputation for large parties and lots of nighttime activity — that tends to attract criminals.

Police say the major problem is not with students, but with non-students who show up to crash parties or target students walking alone at night through the neighborhood’s many dark streets and back alleys.

“We have a lot of party crashers,” said SPD Captain Mike Washburn in The Seattle Times. “We want to get rid of the reputation of the University District being where to go for a party.”

The SPD will add an extra squad and an additional sergeant on duty on weekends, and the UWPD will add two officers to its Incident Prevention Team. The police are also urging fraternities and sororities to tighten their security by letting fewer people, especially non-students, into their parties.

Michael O’Kelley, president of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, located on the corner of 17th Avenue Northeast and Northeast 45th Street, said his house members are taking steps to ensure security at their events.

“We hire security guards to roam through our house parties and make sure people there are either wristbanded or members,” O’Kelley said.

O’Kelley said that security at the front door is strictly maintained.

“We usually have at least three guys outside the door, and four guys right inside the door,” he said. “We’ve been lucky, though; we haven’t had any incidents.”

Private security and strict door checks have become a common part of fraternity parties as security concerns have become more pertinent. Last spring, an altercation at Alpha Sigma Phi that resulted in two female students being assaulted was broken up more quickly in part because of the presence of private security guards the fraternity had hired.

Private residences, however, do not usually have private security, and there is often little or no enforcement to keep party crashers out of these homes.

The violent melee on Feb. 9 that resulted in the assault of four UW students with bricks occurred when the suspects were asked to leave a party and later returned to a private residence to execute revenge for an earlier altercation.

The UWPD began sending e-mail notifications to residents several years ago in order to keep citizens informed of potential dangers in their neighborhoods. This practice was established by a 2005 report released by the Department of Education that required campus police to notify the community about the occurance of specific types of crime.

Prior to this time, police were not required to send out this information, which may contribute to the perception that crime is more prevelant than it once was.

Regardless of what the numbers indicate about actual crime rates, there has been an outpouring of concerns from students who say they feel less safe in the U-District since these incidents occured.

Junior Kristen Upham reported being harrassed and chased by a homeless man on Feb. 7.

“There seem like there are a lot more transients in the area,” she said. “For a while, it seemed like the problems were getting better, but now it’s worse. I’ve felt very unsafe.”

Only time will tell if the new patrols and increased police deployment will be enough to make students feel safe again.

[Reach reporter Siv Prince at news@thedaily.washington.edu.]