By Lindsay Sax
The trend in forcible sex crimes reported to college police has been on the rise since 2010. Recently, from Sept. 21 through Nov. 11, eight reports have been made.
On Oct. 18 someone was reported to have been touching women inappropriately. Four of these victims reported the act to the college police. This caused the emergency preparedness office to issue an alert.
“[An alert is issued] in case there is a risk of an ongoing threat to other individuals,” said Alisa Pacer, emergency preparedness manager. “So people are on the lookout for their own personal safety.”
According to the 2012 Annual Security Report, there was a total of zero sex crimes reported on or off campus. But in 2011 that grew to two reports, with both happening on campus. The number grows in 2012 with five, with two happening on campus, and three off campus.
The incidents that happened on Oct. 18 are still an open investigation by the college police, according to Interim Police Chief Greg Russell.
The process that the police department takes to solve these crimes involves interviewing and research. The first step, according to Russell, is to interview all the victims and witnesses. From there the department will develop persons of interest. They will then get confirmation from the interviews and other information to narrow the suspects down to one. Once the final suspect is identified, the victims will look at a line up and pick who the aggressor was.
The case that took place on Oct. 18 is still in the interview stages.
When it came to the wording of the alert send out to students, some took to social media to mock the use of the term ‘buttocks.’
Pacer said it was an interesting topic on whether to use the term buttocks or butt when composing the message. Since this is a police investigation, they followed the same usage the police would.
“Specific to what kind of touching, that’s how the police department helped formulate [the message],” Pacer said. “It’s an active police investigation. [We] let them take that lead. Follow criminal the language.”
Student Matt Dunn was one of the students who posted a picture of the text on Facebook.
“I put it up on Facebook because the wording of the message was a bit humorous,” Dunn said.
Russell stressed that the investigation is still ongoing, but they have a sense of direction. Not all students are wrapped up in the case.
“It kinda almost seemed like a parody trying to be serious,” said Elizabeth Masson, student. “So I mean, I guess, it’s serious and everything. It’d be interesting, I guess, to see if that’s real. Not one of those things I’ll lose sleep over.”
Dunn also believes the incident is not a considerable issue.
“I feel this is not a big enough case for the campus police to still be looking into,” Dunn said.
Charges could be pressed in a case like this; it is criminal nature, Pacer said. She said that this type of incident is in a category that the campus needs to be aware of.
Another incident happened on campus on Oct. 22. A student reported a lewd behavior at Down Under in the COM building. The report says a student noticed the suspect who was acting strange and staring at blank wall. The victim then saw the suspect pull his sweatpants up and look down at the crotch area, then began to touch himself inappropriately. The suspect said they were unaware of anyone watching and was embarrassed.
This case was closed by the college police and referred to the prosecutor’s office, where they will determine if charges will be filed.
The four incidents of Oct. 18 are the only four open sexual misconduct cases currently open at the police department.
For more information on crime reports visit the JCCC police website at http://www.jccc.edu/administration/ police/. To file to report call 913-469- 8500 ext. 4112.
Contact Lindsay Sax, copy editor, at lsax@jccc.edu.