Tony Callisto was patrolling on Comstock Avenue one year ago Monday when he got an unusual call over the radio.

Rashaun Cameron, of Syracuse, had just stabbed three Syracuse University students outside the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity house on Walnut Place. It was one of the most violent attacks in SU’s recent history.

A Department of Public Safety officer chased Cameron with a car, said DPS Chief Callisto.

‘He opened the door — he got right next to him and just about hit him with the door — and jumped out and chased him down another two blocks,’ Callisto said.

The officer took Cameron down at gunpoint during the Sept. 20, 2009, incident. Cameron received an eight-year prison term at his June 18 sentencing.

Callisto said the ATO stabbing was an ‘anomaly.’

‘Those are the rare instances of serious, physical attack that have really only occurred on or near campus only a few times in the past decade,’ he said. ‘It’s not a common occurrence.’

One year since the stabbings at ATO, numerous updates to campus safety have been made to help students and their parents feel safer. But despite increased security measures, there is a possibility this kind of violent crime could happen again.

The changes

DPS’ relationship with fraternities deepened following the incident at ATO, said Thomas Wolfe, senior vice president and dean of student affairs.

‘Any time one of these major instances occur, there is a review, there is a look and there is a refinement,’ Callisto said.

There is now a DPS supervisor assigned to work with fraternities and the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs, Callisto said.

The supervisor and his staff regularly check on the security personnel hired by the fraternity, Callisto said.

‘They actually kind of inspect what’s going on at the locations where social events are gathering in an effort to maximize presence and the opportunities for security,’ he said.

The social policy for fraternities requires security on site. There were security guards from Chestnut Street Security, Inc., a Syracuse-based security company, at ATO when the stabbings occurred, Callisto said.

DPS, the Syracuse Police Department, the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry police and Upstate Medical University Hospital police also now have the ability to communicate with each other by radio, which is new within the past year, Callisto said.

By the end of the fall 2009 semester, a change in officers’ hours was also made. Officers are now all on 10-hour shifts and have a large overlap on hours, so evening officers don’t get out until early morning and overnight officers come in during the early evening hours, Callisto said.

With this change in hours, there may be up to 24 officers between DPS and SPD patrolling a 3-square-mile area around campus on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, he said. Included in that number are up to five officers working the Orange Watch zones on North and South campuses and in neighborhoods east and north of campus.

Orange Watch is a DPS program that provides an additional officer presence in areas around campus. Since its start in 2007, those areas have seen about a 35 percent decrease in violent crime, Callisto said.

But crime continues to penetrate campus from outside the university. A strong-arm robbery in Walnut Park and five burglaries occurred between Sept. 1 and Monday this year, according to the most recent crime log. That’s a slight decrease from the period between Sept. 1 of last year and the Sept. 20th ATO stabbing, when there were five burglaries and five robberies.

Suspects commit crimes near SU because they think they can get away with it easier, said Sgt. Gary Bulinski of SPD. He said students are easier targets for criminals because they’re unknowledgeable of the area and have a hard time identifying the location where the suspect is headed following a crime.

DPS has also increased the number of walking officers over the past year in an effort to ‘maintain the peace,’ he said. Officers usually pull over their cars on Comstock or Walnut avenues, with their lights flashing, before leaving their cars to walk and interact with students and limit problems, Callisto said.

Maintaining proper lighting in areas like Walnut Park and the East neighborhood has also become a priority within the past year. DPS reports lights that have gone out to National Grid, the power company, and they are typically fixed in a few days, Callisto said.

They also report tree overgrowth to the city if it is covering lights, he said. National Grid and the city survey the university area in the fall and spring to clip trees and enhance lighting.

Security was enhanced this past summer on South Campus, where all the apartments now have heavy-duty screen doors.

‘There hasn’t been one successful burglary, where there’s been a break-in, through those new screens,’ he said. ‘There’s been burglaries on South Campus into unlocked doors.’

The Blue Light Alarm System, which has only been activated twice in the past five years for a proper emergency, was added at three new locations in the past year. Two blue lights were added at University Village Apartments and one was added at Park Point apartments, Callisto said. Every year, there are nearly 1,000 false activations of blue lights.

Callisto said the incident at ATO provided an opportunity to enhance security, but wasn’t the reason for all the changes.

‘The stabbing was not a pinnacle issue to make a series of changes,’ he said. ‘We’re always looking for ways to improve the service and certainly improve student safety.’

Student, parent perception

In the 2009-10 academic year, DPS services provided approximately 22,268 escorts in comparison to 20,956 escorts the previous year, Callisto said.

Despite the increase in escorts, Callisto said students don’t feel more unsafe at SU because of the stabbings at ATO.

‘I talk to a lot of students, and that was a blip on the screen,’ he said. ‘Certainly, there was a lot of interest in that issue immediately after the incident. If you think for yourself, as a student, you’re not walking around here looking over your shoulder every minute. Syracuse University is the safest part of the city of Syracuse, and it’s clear to me that most students realize that.’

Beth Boron, the mother of Allison Boron, a sophomore education major at SU, said she thinks Main Campus offers ‘more of a police presence’ than South Campus.

She said she is pleased with the security at SU and doesn’t see the university as any less safe because of the stabbings at ATO.

‘There are isolated events at every college; it doesn’t make Syracuse any less safe,’ she said.

Rhonda Feitel, whose son is a sophomore at SU, said the security at the university is adequate.

‘There are unsafe elements, but the campus security is doing all it can do,’ she said.

Feitel said the stabbing at ATO was ‘not an everyday thing,’ and she would worry about her son’s safety at any college campus, not just SU.

Frank Satterfield, a junior computer engineering major and Phi Beta Sigma brother, said he’s not scared of any incidents occurring at his fraternity. Hiring security for social events and knowing who is attending the event can prevent potential problems, he said.

Satterfield said he isn’t worried about the safety at the university, either.

‘From my perspective, I feel that people still feel the same way they felt even before that event happened,’ he said. ‘I think DPS put more strict rules in on campus, so people should feel more protected than anything.’

Student Association President Jon Barnhart said although the perception of crime rose at SU, students now have a ‘more improved sense of safety.’

Safety has been and will continue to be a major issue SA pushes, Barnhart said. In the year since the stabbings at ATO, SA has called for greater collaboration between DPS and SPD and for better lighting around campus, which has been an ongoing effort for two years.

A possible reoccurrence

Although security changes have been made at SU, another ATO-like incident is not out of the question.

‘Unfortunately, unusual anomalies are going to happen,’ Callisto said.

But the reality of another violent crime, such as a stabbing occurring on or near campus, is unusual, he said.

The university hasn’t seen the type of violence displayed by the stabbings at ATO since the homicide that shook campus in 2002, he said. Simeon Popov, an SU graduate student, was shot in the face and killed on Jan. 20, 2002, by Dominic Dennard Jr. Dennard was eventually sentenced to 75 years in prison.

Wolfe, the senior vice president and dean of student affairs, understands the possibility of violent isolated events occurring at SU.

Said Wolfe: ‘I’ve learned never to say never.’

jdharr04@syr.edu

 

Published on September 19, 2010 at 12:00 pm

Contact Jon: jdharr04@syr.edu