After a series of burglaries in Columbia's academic buildings in recent weeks, the New York Police Department (NYPD) had one suspect in custody last night and another already before a grand jury.
According to Vice President for Facilities Management Mark Burstein, whose office oversees Columbia Security, there have been 18 burglaries in academic buildings in the past four weeks, compared to a total of only 27 burglaries on the Morningside Heights campus in the 1999 calendar year.
Burstein stressed that all the burglaries were in academic buildings, and that security in residence halls has not been breached.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's definitions, as printed in Facts About Columbia Essential To Students (FACETS), burglary is "the unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or a theft." All burglaries are by definition felonies, Columbia Director of Security George Smartt said.
Smartt said most of the items stolen from the buildings were pieces of hardware such as fax machines and computers, although "some personal property" and cash were taken.
Most members of the Columbia community did not become aware of the burglary wave until Monday, when security posted alerts around campus reminding staff members to lock their office doors and windows and call security if they saw anyone suspicious. The alerts also warned people not to confront anyone alone and to lock their offices when working late.
But Smartt said Security stepped up its efforts two and a half weeks ago, long before the signs were posted. He said Columbia Security had increased its evening patrols and worked with the NYPD to investigate the break-ins and to catch the perpetrators.
Smartt and Burstein declined to comment on the specifics of the investigations in order to avoid giving away the element of surprise, but he said that information from community members was important to the two eventual arrests.
"The information that people provided to us was very helpful to us," Burstein said, adding that although people often doubt their information is useful, "erring on the side of telling us too much would be very helpful."
Smartt said Security had been actively reaching out to members of the community in order to solve the cases. "We have been aggressively attempting to gain information," Smartt said.
"We do rely on members of the Columbia community … to make sure we stay secure," Burstein added.
Burstein said no further burglaries had been reported since Monday, but Assistant Director for Investigations Ken Finnegan said both the alerts and the increased security deserved credit for the improvement.
Burstein cautioned community members against having pre-set notions of what burglars "should" look like. He warned students to call Security if they saw anyone suspicious, regardless of appearance.
Smartt said Security does not know how the burglars were able to gain entry to the buildings, but noted that academic buildings are open in the evenings. "Many may have gotten in that way," Smartt said.
Additionally, Smartt said, in a few cases, the burglars gained entry by breaking a glass partition.
Often, however, the burglars may have gotten in the buildings by waiting for students or faculty members to let them in. "There's never been a member of the Columbia community who doesn't hold the door open for the person behind them," Smartt said.
No matter how they gained entry, the burglars knew their way around campus, Burstein said. "They do know our campus very well and do know when things would be unattended," Burstein said. There were never others around during the break-ins.
The burglars' knowledge of the campus suggested to Burstein that they were recidivists--people who commit crimes after having been caught before. "They come back to campus," Burstein said, "and continue their profession."
Smartt said the fact that no one else was present for the crimes made solving them more difficult because it was often impossible to know exactly when the burglaries occurred. Burglary has a longer period of unknown than any other crime, Smartt said.
If a fax machine is stolen, for example, it is impossible to account for the time between when it was last seen to the time it was reported missing, often a time of 12 or more hours, or even days if a crime takes place over a weekend.
Despite the success of the combined NYPD--Columbia Security operation, Burstein stressed that the arrests do not "necessarily mean we have caught all the perpetrators." Security declined to release the names of the suspects already in custody.
"We just hope that the community continues its current state of alertness," Finnegan said.