TENNESSEE UNIVERSITY CAMPUS SECURITY AND COMPUTER THEFT ADDRESSEDCampus thefts increase as high tech gadgets abound on The Review AppealCampus thefts increase as high tech gadgets abound
By MATT GOURAS / Associated Press Writer

NASHVILLE — More high tech equipment is being stolen from college campuses, a trend college security chiefs chalk up to a proliferation of dorm-room computers and opportunistic thieves.
These days, just about every dorm room has hundreds of dollars in computer and high-tech gadgets, such as PDAs and game consoles, just sitting around. It's almost too easy for a thief prowling the halls.

"People come and go 24 hours a day on our campus," said University of Tennessee Police Chief Ed Yovella. "Just about every kid anymore that comes to school has their own computer. It has made a tremendous change in this kind of theft."

Campus police once spent most of their time dealing with stolen bicycles or car stereos. And, of course, those are still popular items to steal.

But campus police say rising theft rates are mostly attributed to an increased popularity in stealing computers and other technology equipment, like expensive plasma screen or projection TVs — sometimes found in libraries and classrooms.

"What makes it so desirable is that it is an item you can dispose of it pretty quick and turn into cash," said Yovella, who saw thefts increase 15 percent on his campus in just one year in 2003.

Across Tennessee, thefts from buildings jumped 12.5 percent in one year, to 1,935 offenses in 2003. Burglary has increased a whopping 33 percent since 2001, from 392 offenses to 520 in 2003.

Those kind of numbers are helping drive an overall 11.9 percent increase in campus crime in the state, according to a recent report from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

Burglary at Tennessee Tech has jumped from two cases in 2001 to 38 in 2003.

Over those two years, larceny and theft increased 33 percent at Tennessee State University, 16 percent at Austin Peay and 8 percent at Middle Tennessee State University.

"By state rankings, Tennessee is fairly high on crime overall," said Charles Manning, Tennessee Board of Regents chancellor. "So you would expect some transfer of what is going on in the general population."

Violent crime is also up at state schools — but officials say it's just an aberration when compared to past figures. Violent crime is much more rare overall, with just 148 total offenses in 2003, compared to 122 cases in 2002.

Yovella said he's hearing from other security chiefs that the theft and burglary increases are a problem around the country.

Some examples from Department of Education statistics comparing 2000 to 2002: property crime at the University of Arizona went up 19 percent, Florida A&M saw a 64 percent jump, and Cornell increased 29 percent.

But the Education Department doesn't tabulate campus crime totals in the country to measure if there's an overall increase.

A group that focuses on violent crime and the way colleges deal with it, Campus on Security, said it doesn't have a firm handle on lesser offenses like theft and doesn't have any recent national statistics for crimes like theft.

But S. Daniel Carter, the organization's vice president, said the trend still seems evident.

"Over the past few years, it does seem that that (type of) crime has been going up," he said.

Even though Tennessee schools say campus crime rates are not out of line with crime rates in neighboring cities, officials say they tell incoming freshman to keep their high-priced tech gadgetry locked up.

Yovella said he tells them to mark their computers, make sure to lock dorm room doors and don't do things like leave laptop computers unattended in the library or other public places.

Things have changed a lot, Manning said, since he was in college.

"I didn't even lock my dormitory room, but I didn't have anything to steal," he said. "Students come laden with more toys than they used to."
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On the Net:
TBI: http://www.tbi.state.tn.us