Uchicago Letter and Chicago Crime in the Media

I turned on the radio NPR in the car this morning and heard a discussion/interview about the controversial letter- a political science professor and two students. Then on my way back home, NPR had a story about Chicago’s huge rise in crime- 400+ shootings in the month of August.

That was kind of weird- or maybe I’m just super tuned in since my D will start there soon. FWIW, UChicago has gotten a ton of free press and coverage since this letter came out. If it was a deliberate move on their part for this purpose- brilliant If not, still pretty good outcome, press wise.

The other news was very disconcerting. It made me start to think about things more carefully. I feel terrible about how many people are being victimized. It must have an impact on the entire city. It’s also making me really nervous about my D’s safety. I know that UChicago has a big police force and my husband was just there and even walked across Washington Park and took public transportation, but this news upsets me.

Chicago’s campus is pretty safe. I think you’re just going nuts mom.

^ yeah, I know… Nothing is rational anymore when you are faced with letting go of your child. Plus I probably have secondary PTSD from actually working with the victims of crimes and seeing the actual crime scenes… So, it’s hard…I’m trying here…

UT Austin had a recent murder of a young female student on campus- so tragic. I believe it was the first on campus murder since the mass shooting spree from the tower. The young woman was walking across campus to her dorm when she was attacked. The police arrested a teen homeless male who was on campus. It was 9:30pm. So, yes, parents worry when these things happen. You don’t know how many times I heard victims and their families say they always thought that it was something that happened to other people but not to them. I know worrying doesn’t help the situation and think I would worry no matter what campus she goes to but hearing about the crime rate does cause pause.

I recall reading somewhere on these boards that the UCPD is the largest university police force in the country (among private colleges).

Now, you can interpret that in a couple of ways. Either:

  1. That's wonderful and we're mostly safe; or
  2. It's worrying that the administration sees a need for that manpower.

I’m not too worried, but then I am a coddled suburban kid, so take that with a grain of salt.

Goingnutsmom: Your concerns are perfectly rational, in my opinion. I’ve had the same concerns with my son (who is a male but is a very gentle soul). He’s been there 3 years including all this summer in an apartment and he swears that it is safe. He is all over HP and into town all the time. That being said, the campus and HP area is patrolled extensively, dorms are really (though not perfectly) safe, there are UChicago buses which can take you all around HP at all hours of the night, and the kids quickly learn urban safety tactics such as traveling in groups, etc.

One plus of living and going to school in HP as opposed to, say, Cornell or Dartmouth but similar to, say, Penn, is that you do learn the (street) rules of living in the big city, and since many of the jobs the young people want will be found in major urban centers, it is a good thing to learn how to live in an urban setting in a relatively protected environment, in my opinion.

Best of luck to your daughter this fall.

@NotVerySmart, not only does UChicago have the largest police force than any college- it has the largest private police force outside of the Vatican. And they just added more police.

I visited U of Chicago this summer and after nightfall, there literally was a security guard or police man/woman on every corner.

Unfortunately, bad things can happen anywhere. A few days ago a student of Ithaca College was stabbed to death at a social event at Cornell University. Another survived multiple stab wounds.

The campus and immediate area around it is safe. It is the area beyond it that is not.

DD really wants to apply. It’s the one school that scares me and I would like to scratch from her list because of the all the violence reported in the news. I know it’s not fair for me to tell her she can’t apply there and the odds of getting in are slim but I do worry that if I can’t come to terms with it now, it will be a battle later.

She has been raised in a rural area (no street smarts!) and although I know that the campus is safe, I worry about her getting to and from campus alone at all hours from the airport. How most students get back and forth?

@fidoprincess almost every first year has no street smarts when they get here. During o-week your RAs and o-aides teach you how to live in a city! Or at least try to, most people learn as they go along.

People uber to the airport or take the public bus. All options are safe.

Nowhere is 100 percent safe, but understanding crime patterns in Chicago might indicate that much violent crime centers in the poorest neighborhoods and much is drug- and gang-related. Probably the best bet for a UChicago student to stay safe is to stay sober, use the locks, travel smart, keep the smart phone in the pocket and the ear buds off when outside or in-transit, and keep out of the low-income areas. Hyper-awareness helps. But, really, violence can and does happen everywhere.

@NotVerySmart

I have heard this thrown around a lot, but this doesn’t seem to be accurate, at least according to this file. I know the data is a few years old, but it is the latest I could find. If anybody else has more recent data, please post. I am curious

www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cle1112.pdf

Here are the numbers based on sworn personnel for the different universities

Temple University 133
University of Pennsylvania 116
University of Southern California 102
University of Maryland - College Park 99
Howard University 94
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston 92
George Washington University 90
Tulane University 90
Vanderbilt University 88
University of Chicago 86

Maybe it is based on Sworn full time officers per 10,000 students. Chicago does beat Penn by that measure, even though Penn’s total number is larger?

I found this

That would make it 107 officers.

Here is the data on Penn

So Chicago is definitely not the largest

The security people standing at the corners are not UChicago PD. They are contract security whose job is to re-assure the visitors, students, administration and faculty that things are safe, and to call the real cops when somethings happens. They are good at what they do.

I recently had read that UCPD had 120 police officers and they are adding. It was in an article about the history of UCPD.

It looks like Temple has more officers from what someone else posted.

Well, this is confusing- found a 2012 article in The Chicago Maroon titled A brief history of the UCPD that stated it employed 140 officers.

Are these numbers full-time equivalents or individual employees?

OK, so I actually spoke with the chief of UChicago police dept and he said they have 72 sworn police officers. He also said that there is a myth about them being the largest private police force around. They do have a security dept and that encompasses a lot more employees. This was during their student orientation/move in days.

By coincidence, the Chief also spoke to us while we were having dinner on 53rd street during pre-orientation. We asked him (without knowing he was the chief) whether working for the University force was a comparably easy job. He launched into a very interesting discussion about why it was actually difficult - because of where students are mentally and how they view police. He also spoke about the need to be trained in de-escalation. We came away super impressed.