Ellington

Despite UW students receiving four notifications of robberies on or near campus last year, the UWPD says robberies in the U-District are not on the rise. However, campus thefts are trending up.

The robbery trend is pertinent following the armed robbery of a business on Roosevelt Way Northeast on Monday morning.

“Probably the best thing to say about trends is, in general, over a four- or five-year period, our trends tend to stay fairly flat, which means that there aren’t really any big changes very often,” UWPD Cmdr. Steve Rittereiser said. “We’re not seeing any major trends in terms of increase in that kind of thing.”

Robbery trends reported by the UWPD are consistent with those reported by the Seattle Police Department, which have remained steady since 2007. However, Rittereiser said the UWPD was able to set itself apart from the greater trend with its case-solvability rates. The assailants in three of the four robberies reported last year were identified and arrested.

The UWPD had a solvability rate of 75 percent for robbery cases in 2011. That’s higher than any national average, which is probably around 17 percent, Rittereiser said.

A robbery that occurred outside Schmitz Hall is among the resolved cases. Prosecutors are currently pursuing charges against the two perpetrators, which was some consolation for the victims.

“My philosophy has always been that people probably aren’t up to no good,” said UW junior Laura Daugherty, one of the victims from the incident Dec. 12. “These are clearly really bad people. These are people that should be in jail.”

She and Mario Buty lost a lot more than the money they spent on dinner that night.

“I was studying for finals,” Daugherty recalled. “We went to get dinner a little after 11. We were walking back to the library a little before midnight and, as we were walking past Schmitz Hall, there were two guys who asked us if we had the time.”

Buty said he pulled out his phone to check.

“Then one came and pointed a gun at my stomach,” he said. “So I put my hands above my head.”

The suspects took their wallets, cell phones, and laptops.

UW Associate Vice President of Media Relations and Communications Norm Arkans agreed the high-profile cases were not unusual.

“In general, the campus is a pretty safe campus,” he said. “These are periodic crimes that happen when individuals come from outside the university community who believe students have something valuable.”

While he doesn’t think robberies are increasing, Rittereiser voiced concern about the number of thefts recently. He explained thefts are different from robberies in that a thief uses neither threats nor violence in the process of taking a victim’s property.

“In general, theft is up on the campus,” the commander said. “There could be a lot of reasons for that. One could be the state of the economy. People are looking at quick-fix types of small articles.”

Many recent cases seem to be the result of students leaving their belongings unattended.

“What seems to be the theme of the reports is, ‘I left my bike unlocked,’ or ‘I left my backpack to go to the bathroom, and when I came back, it was gone,’” Rittereiser said. “So what we’re seeing is the unattended property thefts. That’s the thing that’s probably most concerning to us in terms of trending.”

In response to this spike in criminal activity, UWPD Chief John Vinson sent a campus-wide email detailing preventative steps students should take to protect their possessions. He suggested items such as laptops, cell phones, and MP3 players are “tempting items for thieves, especially when left unattended on a library table or in an unlocked office” and reminded students to not to leave their items unattended.

In the safety email, Chief Vinson also addressed ways students can guard themselves against potential robberies by protecting themselves when walking in the U District at night. He suggested waiting until arrival at a destination before using a hand-held cell phone, “an easy target for thieves to steal.”

After her experience as a robbery victim, Daugherty said she altered how she approaches safety.

“I’m definitely more attentive now,” she said. “I sometimes get my roommates to drive me places instead of walking by myself late at night.”

Reach reporter Maddie Davis at news@dailyuw.com.