Oberlin officials host safety forum

Community residents discuss safety issues

A security forum Wednesday night gave members of the Oberlin community the opportunity to discuss everything from assaults to arson.

The meeting was organized by various City and College safety officials to talk about issues of safety and security on campus and in the town of Oberlin.

Among those who attended were Safety and Security Director Keith James, Oberlin City Police Chief Robert Jones, Oberlin City Fire Chief Dennis Kirin, members of the Oberlin City Council, College Security officers and students.

Jones said the Oberlin police are focusing mainly on the assault. "We have one major issue that we're working on right now and that's the assault of the young lady," he said.

One student, who is a close friend of the person who was assaulted, expressed a concern that the memo distributed to inform students did not relay the severity of the crime.

"It said 'a student was assaulted in back of Keep.' It didn't say 'someone could have died in back of Keep that night.' A lot of people don't realize the magnitude of this occurrence," the student said

In response Jones said, "When giving out information, we want to give enough information to warn people but not so much to scare away the culprit. Sometimes the people who commit crimes can be very conniving."

James said that the department of Safety and Security works to give the exact facts when writing such memos. He said, "We try to keep the information as factual as possible. We try to paint as accurate a picture as possible with the actual events."

A former student, Mark Chesler, expressed his concern that it takes the Oberlin police too long to find the culprits of crime in Oberlin. Chesler cited a personal example to emphasize his point. "I was very disappointed with the tepid response to my mugging," he said.

Jones emphasized that the police department has to work on the most pressing crime first. "Sometimes crimes happen and there's a time frame to solve a crime. Some crimes take priority. Now your crime did not involve injury, so the woman who was assaulted took priority over yours," he said. Chesler said he had, in fact, been injured.

Senior Micha Josephy asked about recent crimes and fires in Oberlin. He said, "It seems to me that the number of fires and the number of security issues have increased over the years. Is this true?"

"You're not experiencing anything here that hasn't happened in Oberlin before with the exception of the fatality from the recent fire. For the past three years, the number of fires in Oberlin have been 45 in 1995, 44 in 1996, and 43 in 1997," Kirin said.

Kirin said he has examined records and compared the number of fires in Oberlin to those in other small towns and has found that Oberlin does not stand out as abnormal. "I would consider us normal at this point. I'd like to see a lot less. We don't cause them. We work to prevent them and educate people," he said.

Manager of Housing and Dining Sandy Hougland expressed concern about the three recent fires in the time span of three weeks. "I had some students and a parent ask me, 'was it arson?'" she said.

Kirin said the fire department puts much effort into discovering the cause of fires. "The investigation runs real close to the police investigation. We go through every little detail and make sure that it's right. The causes of the last two fires are leaning towards electrical causes," he said.

Kirin also addressed preventative measures that can be taken by Oberlin home owners. He cited smoking, electrical appliances and cooking as the three main causes of fires in homes.

"If you notice any problems with the electricity like blinking lights, if your TV is flickering; if you see these problems, you should contact the landlord or owner," Kirin said.

Both Kirin and James agreed that the amount of community education about incidents has increased, and that this may be the cause of people believing that actual crimes and fires have increased.

"The emphasis on sharing information with the community has increased," James said.

Jones encouraged anybody with questions about a crime to go to the Oberlin Police or Security offices. "The information is available to everyone. It is open and we're there to serve you," he said. "We are going to have scheduled meetings. They will be publicized so that the students will be able to express their concerns and ask questions."