<p>Shared this link with my D to make her aware: [Crime</a> Alerts](<a href=“http://www.american.edu/finance/publicsafety/crimealerts.cfm]Crime”>http://www.american.edu/finance/publicsafety/crimealerts.cfm)
Lots of burglaries in the residence hall. We’re definitely getting her a safe and/or laptop lock.</p>
<p>Anyone have experience with lojack or similar service? Was it worth it?</p>
<p>Most of these are VERY likely student on student. Girls especially need to keep their wits about them.</p>
<p>Those numbers don’t say “a lot” of burglaries to me, and there’s no indication of how many occurred in the dorms. The best prevention is a locked door–students have to be vigilant about locking their dorm doors, even if they just step out to do laundry or visit down the hall. And a high quality bike lock is a smart idea. My guess is that a lot of the thefts involve carelessness on the part of the students. D was in a show last year, and the performers lost some personal items that had been left unattended overnight in the dressing room–foolish on their part. AU is in a big, bustling city, and while access to the dorms is controlled, anyone can stroll through the campus and enter other buildings, so students have to use the same care and common sense they would use in any other public environment. I also recommend backing up computer data so the loss of a laptop (through theft or even the need for repairs) isn’t catastrophic, and dorm room insurance (quite inexpensive) so that items can be replaced in the unlikely event of theft.</p>
<p>Check out the daily crime log on that page for more detailed info</p>
<p>And actually, if you click on the dates of each incident, it provides you with more detail. For example, during welcome week last year, one crime alert reported 4 burglaries just during that week.</p>
<p>The latest annual safety report (2010) shows the following counts for burglaries:</p>
<p>2007 - 19
2008 - 43
2009 - 31 (21 in residence halls)</p>
<p>For liquor violations:</p>
<p>2007 - 280
2008 - 244
2009 - 340</p>
<p>Maybe that’s why there is so much emphasis on alcohol.edu!</p>
<p>Keeping your computer backed up is a good practice – at least if it gets stolen, you still have the data. Best for this is one of the automatic online services (like mozy or carbonite).</p>
<p>Last year, AU was doing a pilot of keyless entry for the dorm rooms. They started with Roper & Clark, the newly converted halls, and were planning to roll it out across the campus as part of their refurbishment cycle. That may improve security as students would be less likely to keep their doors locked. Most of the burglaries are crimes of opportunity.</p>
<p>Regarding a dorm safe, there was a discussion on this topic on the parent forum and most parents agreed that very few students on any campus used them. The ones that are compact enough to fit in a dorm room can just be carried out of the room if someone really wanted to commit theft. There are issues with prescription medication being a target of theft at many, many schools, so if your student is bringing meds, especially those with street value, that would be an issue to think ahead to solutions that are easy for the student comply with, but would deter crimes of opportunity. </p>
<p>I also got my D a laptop cable lock, but truthfully am not sure how often she used it!</p>
<p>Most of the dorm rooms on campus have a lockable cabinet or drawer in the room. Just bring your own padlock. But D admitted that the only time she used it was when she was gone for the weekend and locked up her laptop.</p>