After four violent robberies this weekend, Penn Police officials said they are taking steps to combat what they see as an emerging crime pattern.
A special shift of officers -- which Patrol Capt. Joseph Fischer dubbed a "tactical task force" -- will be assigned each night "to target certain areas and watch for certain activities."
The task force will have a dual purpose. It is intended to both decrease the opportunity for would-be robbers to commit crimes and to improve the response time and likelihood of apprehending suspects if a crime does occur.
"Officers are very determined to put an end to this," Fischer said. "They are taking this personally."
As a result, he said, "a lot of officers have volunteered for the extra details."
Therefore, resources will not be diverted from other shifts or other areas of campus. The extra man-hours, Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush said, will come from overtime, even though that will mean that some officers will now work every day of the week.
Rush said that the eastern portion of the Penn Police patrol area will be the focus of these efforts.
To prevent similar crimes, police are also encouraging students to use walking and driving escort services to avoid walking alone.
"Be aware of your surroundings," Fischer said.
Deputy Chief of Investigations Mike Morrin believes that students and other community members may be able to help police find those behind the recent robberies.
He encouraged anyone who thinks that he or she may have seen something relevant Saturday night or Sunday morning to contact police.
Fischer is confident that the efforts will be fruitful.
"We've been challenged before," he said, "but we're going to win this."
Fischer and Morrin said that they now believe that three of the robberies are related.
In each of the three cases, the victim was walking alone at the time of the attack, suggesting that these robberies were "crimes of opportunity," in which the robbers sought vulnerable targets.
The weekend's crimes were also similar in that all of the suspects used violence -- but not weapons -- against their victims.
Parallels in suspect descriptions among the three incidents suggest that some of the same attackers could be responsible for multiple crimes.
The robberies also mark a departure from a trend in recent years in which the majority of these types of crimes occurred toward the western end of Penn's campus -- particularly between 40th and 43rd streets.
Of the weekend's incidents, three occurred near the east end of campus, one near the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, one on Hill Square and a third near Van Pelt Library.
After a pair of violent robberies two weeks ago that occurred west of 40th Street, Penn Police assigned extra officers and AlliedBarton Security guards to that area in response.
Fischer believes that these efforts have been effective and that this could be part of the reason the most recent robberies happened farther east, in the 3400 block of Spruce and Chestnut streets.
Staying safe - Use the 898-WALK and 898-RIDE services to avoid walking alone - Use a blue-light phone if you feel unsafe - To call the police, dial (215) 573-3333 from cell phones or off-campus telephones and 511 from on-campus phones
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