VCU Police, administration hold safety-related town hall meeting
VCU administration, VCUPD, and others took a timeout to talk to students and Richmonders about the recent crime on and around campus. Here’s a rundown of VCU’s university safety town hall meeting last week.
Update #3 — OCtober 18th, 8:15 AM
By Scotti Cutlip
Last Thursday, VCU Police and the VCU Division of Student Affairs hosted a university safety town hall meeting. Students, alumni, and even parents barely filled the 400-seat auditorium in Harris Hall. VCU students, Facebook fans, and Twitter followers were notified the day before, on October 10th.
After a brief introduction, attendees were able to ask questions. VCU Police Chief John Venuti, who has been in the spotlight after the abundance of recent crime alerts, answered the majority.
Apart from a few unrelated issues (drug-trafficking, Richmond prisons, poverty, the need for VCU dress codes, and raising adjunct faculties’ pay), there were multiple concerns in the following areas having to do with campus safety issues:
VCU Security Escort Service improvements. Students wait an average of 40 minutes for the driver, usually in dark alleys and streets. From a safety survey taken last year, this service rated incredibly low. Venuti assured the attendees that they are reforming the program. Among proposed changes are notifications when the driver is nearby and GPS tracking so students can locate the shuttles on smart phones.
G4S private security patrols. Also due to the safety survey, and thanks to a surplus in the budget, the $35,000 security patrols program adds on-campus protection. Officers are unarmed, unable to make arrests, and placed in populated areas. According to the VCUPD website, patrols provide a “high-visibility security presence” from 9:00 PM to 2:00 or 3:00 AM depending on the day of the week.
“Not credible” bomb threat from last month. A student questioned the situation, saying he’d rather be safe than sorry. Venuti then said they were still on the case, but no further details could be given.
Vague criminal descriptions. Except for the infamously described chili-pepper-pants bandit, all of the suspects are black males who wear hoodies. The female student who brought this up then pointed out that there were many in the room who fit that description. Because of the vague descriptions, those who match them have a negative stigma attached to them. She then asked if police sketches could be sent out. Venuti said they give out information that is given to them by the victims. Sketches take hours, and the point of the text and email alerts is to quickly put out a warning.
Police officers’ lack of communication at a crime scene. A few residents said police refused to give them information, at the scene, about what was happening. Venuti said he would talk to his team about keeping open communications and notifying others who ask.
Richmond Police. VCUPD keeps a close relationship to RPD as well as Virginia State Police. However, it was strange to attendees that they do not use the same radio system. The entire communication system is also due for an upgrade.
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Update #2 — October 10th, 12:42 PM
Richmond Police have arrested two men, James V. Banks and Joshua L. Bryan, both 19-years old, for an armed robbery. Police believe the two are also connected with the robbery spree that occurred Monday evening around VCU campus.
Banks and Bryan have both been charged with robbery and use of a firearm for an incident that took place on the 500 block of E. Grace Street on the evening of Monday, October 8th. Banks has also been charged with brandishing a firearm.
Police are still determining whether the suspects are involved in a series of six robbery-related incidents that also took place on Monday night (see story below).
Both of the suspects are from Hanover County, and neither are VCU students. Richmond Police and Hanover County deputies cooperated in making the arrests.
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Update #1 — October 10th, 9:20 AM
Yesterday afternoon at City Hall, Richmond Police Deputy Chief Eric English joined VCU Police Chief John Venuti to discuss the recent armed and attempted robberies that occurred Monday evening around VCU’s Monroe Park campus. They were joined by City Administrative Officer Byron Marshall, VCU President Michael Rao, and other City officials.
Deputy Chief English announced he would assign extra patrols to the areas affected.
“We have always had a good working relationship with the VCU Police Department,” said English. “We expect these extra resources will go a long way to making anyone planning future robberies to think twice.”
Chief Venuti welcomed the added assistance.
“I am committed to using whatever resources are necessary to provide a safe environment for the 50,000 students, faculty and staff at VCU,” said Venuti. “This extra manpower will help us to achieve that.”
Also yesterday, Mayor Dwight Jones met with VCU President Rao to discuss the use of additional resources and ways the City and VCU can further collaborate.
— ∮∮∮ —
Original — October 9th, 10:38 AM
View Robbery-related crimes — 10/8/12 in a larger map
Six robbery-related incidents involving firearms took place last night both on and near VCU’s Monroe Park Campus, according to Richmond and VCU Police.
The first incident occurred at approximately 7:37 PM at 913 W. Franklin Street. Witnesses reported that three black males approached, one displayed a firearm and demanded money.
An attempted robbery involving a firearm took place a short time later at Grace and Foushee streets at approximately 8 PM. Around the same time, another robbery took place at First and Grace streets in which the assailant brandished a gun. The victim told Police that the assailant wore pajama pants with a chili pepper pattern.
Both an armed robbery and an attempted armed robbery occurred a short time later around 8:30 PM at Laurel and Cary streets.
Police report that yet another attempted robbery took place a short distance away at Cary and Belvidere streets also around 8:30 PM. Police say all incidents might involve the same individual.
“I am very upset along with all of you that last night six robbery related crimes happened on or in the vicinity of the Monroe Park Campus,” said VCU President Michael Rao in a statement today. “Richmond Police are investigating five of the incidents and VCU Police are investigating the one incident that happened on our property [at 913 W. Franklin]. Together they are working diligently to apprehend those responsible for these crimes.”
Safety, said Rao, “is a top priority at VCU,” adding that the University’s police force is the largest in Virginia with 92 sworn officers.
Rao: “What happened last night is untenable. I [will] meet with Richmond’s Chief Administrative Officer and Police Chief today, and with Mayor Jones tomorrow. I will emphasize my concern for the continued need for a strong partnership between VCU and the city to prevent crime and protect the more than 50,000 students, faculty and staff who live and work on and near our campuses.”
VCU informed students and the community of the armed robberies throughout the evening via the VCU Alert system.
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Nathan Cushing
Nathan Cushing is a writer, journalist, and RVANews Editor.
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We need more regulation, guys. On Chili-pepper pants.
Seriously though. Six robberies at VCU last night. I don’t fully understand how crime fighting actually works, but I feel there’s a certain amount of incompetence involved here. VCU has the RPD, their own police agency, AND a third-party security patrol going along.
That’s a crap-ton of money going into security, and yet, SIX robberies can occur in one night. That’s not just “untenable,” President Rao. It’s unbelievable. Get your shit together.
“Safety, said Rao, ‘is a top priority at VCU,’ adding that the University’s police force is the largest in Virginia with 92 sworn officers.”
The size of the force doesn’t equate to safety. The quality of the officers do.
I’m not necessarily saying VCU Police are ineffective, but Curtis makes an excellent point: “…there’s a certain amount of incompetence involved here. VCU has the RPD, their own police agency, AND a third-party security patrol going along.”
Seriously, what’s going on?
VCU/Richmond Police too busy patting themsleves on the back for that marijuana bust a few months ago to stop armed robbery. I know I feel so much safer with that harmless drug off the streets.
With all of the crime that’s happened just since this weekend, perhaps the PR campaign of the RVA stickers should’ve included guns and blood as part of the logo…
Meanwhile, VCU police too busy breaking up parties while RPD holds down speed traps.
Crime Spree Hits Greater Jackson Ward
FYI, These robberies did not take place on campus. So far as I know VCU does not patrol Monroe or Jackson Ward.
this is a map of VCUPD’s jurisdiction: http://www.police.vcu.edu/docs/MonroeParkMap.pdf
As you can tell, they have jurisdiction in all of carver and some of monroe ward.
While you are correct they dont have patrols in jackson ward and most of carver, they do (supposedly) patrol other areas which many of the problems are occuring.
Hours after Rao’s photo op and platitudes about closer cooperation with the police, a woman gets stabbed on the VCU medical campus. This school needs to grab the bull by the horns and offer definitive solutions to the ridiculous crime situation. To be honest, VCU sounds more like a war zone than a university. My son is looking into transferring from VCU to another school next year because he doesn’t feel safe there. We just hope he gets out before he becomes yet another crime statistic.
92 officers??? I just looked at the jurisdiction map and if we can place one officer every other street, every three blocks it would take 20 officers a shift to appropiately partol the area. Times that by 3 shifts, thats 60 officers to keep us safe. The remaining 32 can be doing what ever duties they need to do but COME ON really? How in the world do you not catch a guy in a 2 hr time span robbing a bunch of people??? No doing your job, thats how!
It does sound like Chili Pepper Pants decided to go for a walk and, oh heck, might as well rob some people on the way, doesn’t it?
In my daddy’s day, people could sit out in Monroe Park after midnight and nobody gave it a second thought. Richmond knew how to handle things back in the 1950s.
Boy do you ever live in a fantasy world, Mr Skelton.
No fantasy anon.
Richmond didn’t have to handle those things back then. Families commonly slept in the parks in the days before air conditioning. Black neighborhoods were notoriously tightknit and safe. Kids who misbehaved knew their parent would know and be waiting for them before they ever got home.
The police are doing their job pretty well. Most people who get robbed are practicing unsafe habits in general. Doesnt matter how large your police force is, its only a deterrent if youre afraid to get caught. Also, Im out biking from 11pm to 3am most nights and the police force is plenty present but it only takes a few seconds and an empty street to rob someone and run around the corner to completely blend in with the city with the victim unable to properly identify you because they were unaware and unprepared. What is interesting is what happens when VCU sends out an alert about an armed robbery. Everyone goes inside except for the people who have to travel still. So if 75% of the students on campus just disappear from the streets, imagine how many more unfavorable situations the remainder find themselves in while theyre walking home ,alone, in the dark. And however you figure that math out, I guarantee that a busy street is more of a deterrent to muggings and robberies than knowing there might be a cop within a few blocks. Most of the people commenting on the perceived ineffectiveness of the police force dont live here. Its pretty obvious. For the past 4 years every year Ive spent here has felt safer than the last. Dont let one brazen criminal paint a distorted picture.
gotta let the sheepdogs run with the flock if you wanna stop the wolves.
I’m sure the VCU force and the RPD force work together like hand in glove, but no matter how tight that relationship is, in its essence it’s a response *after* the fact. This ‘protects’ no one directly.
These crimes were perpetrated at suppertime, not in the dead of a deep black night. Avoiding being out late and alone is not the answer. Alerts and ‘town-hall’ meetings are irrelevant. In fact, as one commentor has observed, driving people inside only serves to increase the risk to those who remain, and reduce the number of potential witnesses.
What is untenable is the administration’s head-in-the-sand denial that disarming victims only increases the risk. What is untenable is the refusal to recognize the plain truth that all the comforting pablum affects the thugs not one bit. What is untenable is holding the students, not to mention the faculty and staff, in such mistrust and contempt as to count them unreliable to self- protect without becoming attackers themselves.
The students, faculty, staff, and public in and around VCU deserve better: they deserve their full human rights of freedom of movement and self-defense. And the animal jerks creating these incidents deserve to be at risk of getting hurt. VCU must at a minimum permit holders of CHP (over 21, clear background, and trained) to move freely on campus while armed. Gun-free zones protect, and embolden, only the attackers. We’ve seen this over and over again, but the university bureaucrats just refuse to get it. President Rao, wake up. Free the sheepdogs.
I am writing this response at suppertime, not in the dead of a deep black night. I decided on breakfast for dinner, a big bowl of Pablum. I guess I don’t have a response but a question, who are the animal jerks? the sheep? the wolves? or the sheep dogs?
South Barton: My references to suppertime and dead of night were to make the point that the victims of crime, especially last Monday, are not to blame for ‘high-risk behavior’ because they did not engage in any. (Indeed, the victim is never at fault, but this is especially clear in this story.) The only effective way to address this problem is through private sidearms.
My analogy (you know that word, right?) to sheep, etc. refers to an analysis in which one acknowledges in society three divisions relevant to this discussion: ‘sheep’, the great mass of the public who do not think of self-protection or the risk of criminal attack, but go blithely about their business assuming that someone else (the government) will keep them safe; ‘wolves”, the criminals everywhere who prey on others; and ‘sheepdogs’, the sound citizens who appreciate the risk of being chosen as victim and prepare themselves to repel that threat if it eventuates. These last include most significantly the 4% of Virginians who not only choose their places and times carefully, but also obtain and exercise CHP – Concealed Handgun Permits – to protect themselves and anyone who has the misfortune to be attacked in their presence. They are usually not visibly distinguishable from the ‘sheep’, which makes them highly formidable to the ‘wolves’. Everyone basically falls into one of these three categories, and each of us chooses by his action which he is.
My use of ‘animal jerks’ is another reference to criminals, and specifically those who perpetrated the assaults under discussion here, not to the university’s administration, though they are also rather seriously misguided in the policies they have effected. Now I hope you understand.
but seriously….. who let the dogs out?
Yes I understand, but if you want to be taken seriously you could write as though you realize you are living in a world made of atoms and matter; not one found in pulp. You want to convince people that the city would be a safer place if the general public was armed, you really should appear grounded in reality. “Wolves” you say are criminals who are everywhere, this absolute makes you sound paranoid, and without good sound judgment. Are the “wolves” in my church? are they in my grandmothers home? is my wife a wolf? are you a wolf? “Your use of “animal jerks” was sophomoric.” Just because people make fun of you, doesn’t mean they don’t understand. I understand perfectly.
people championing the use of “private sidearms” are funny.
They also sound like people who have never been robbed before.
Good luck with carrying your gun around, because your robber just got a shiny new gun to use on everybody else!
El, you were right all the way up to when you brought guns into the discussion. Our rights are being violated every, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Until our government cherishes those rights more than the rights of criminals to roam our neighborhoods, scope out victims and randomly prey on us, the problem won’t be solved. My rights are being violated every time I avoid walking after dark or turning down particular streets, but that is no guarantee of safety. It’s a double edged sword, but I want to know when and where these crimes take place as soon as they happen. I’d rather not turn down Grace of Marshall minutes after someone is robbed, beaten or stabbed. I think getting mad is the first requirement. When enough people get mad, something will get done.