Although its official jurisdiction ends at Syracuse University’s boundaries, Sgt. Drew Buske said the Department of Public Safety’s concerns for students often takes its job much farther.

The department’s presence is well known on campus, from uniformed officers to welcome stations to the white trackers that patrol the grounds. But the department’s involvement with Syracuse Police Department investigations is not always as evident.

‘We have a good working relationship with them,’ said Syracuse Police Sgt. Tom Connellan.

The relationship came to light with last week’s arrest of 11 teenagers for nine armed robberies, five of which occurred in neighborhoods around SU. Four of the robberies involved SU students.

The nine teenagers committed the robberies in three independent groups on three different days, Aug. 19, Aug. 23 and Sept. 2.

The police department arrested the teenagers after Public Safety Officer C.J. McUrty noticed a suspicious vehicle on Labor Day weekend, recorded its license plate number and reported the information to the city police.

‘As it turned out the description of that car matched the description of the car involved in some of the other burglaries,’ Buske said.

Even before their contribution to the arrests, Public Safety helped the case by sending warnings to students cautioning them in light of the robberies. The department sends alerts to students over a listserve whenever a robbery, assault or other serious crime happens near the university, Buske said.

‘It was just helpful to make people aware of the robberies,’ Connellan said. ‘It prevents more people from becoming victims.’

Public Safety serves as a liaison between the students and administration at the university and the police department, Connellan said. Knowing the students behaviors and establishing a trust with the community has helped encouraged people to come forth with crime information, he added.

‘The citizens are the eyes and ears of the police,’ Buske said. ‘And the students are that same extension for us.’

And sometimes, Public Safety has more time to investigate smaller, not as urgent, cases, Connellan said.

Because the university is such a large part of the Syracuse community, some students, including Kate Wilkes, a sophomore in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, said they think this relationship between Public Safety and the city police is necessary.

Historically, Public Safety’s involvement with crimes has been limited to occurrences on campus. Most recently was the rash of academic building break-ins during the Spring 2002 Easter holiday. Public Safety apprehended the thief and notified the police department, which pressed charges.

But its jurisdiction limits the department’s abilities to pursue a criminal off university property, Buske said. Officers can arrest a suspect on university property if they have a probable cause, but have no authority off campus. So, if an officer is following a criminal on university property, he would need to call for police backup once the chase left campus property, Buske added.

‘That kind of limits our pursuit of a suspect,’ he said.

Public Safety officers also need to take caution with criminals because, unlike the city police force, they do not carry weapons.

‘We’re limited to what we can do there without putting ourselves in danger,’ Buske said.

After the first day’s robberies, Public Safety increased its presence in neighborhoods east of the university, where many students reside, by adding patrols of plain clothes officers.

Mary Haggerty, a senior psychology major, who lives on Harrison Street, said while she feels safe in her off-campus apartment, she avoids walking places alone.

Because the university has a lot of foot traffic, the area also attracts a lot of crime, Connellan said. In each of the nine robberies, the teenagers robbed people who were walking alone, he added.

‘It makes it a lot easier to just pull up and rob someone,’ Connellan said.

Published on September 23, 2002 at 12:00 pm