Campus Safety stresses risk reduction

Campus Police work to keep students safe, but say they need students to take measures to protect themselves and act as eyes and ears for campus safety.

Recent assaults involving Temple students have many concerned about their safety on and off campus.
On Aug. 20, a Temple student was shot and robbed for his iPhone near 13th Street and Girard Avenue.
Another student was nearly abducted Sept. 2. Police said she was walking near Temple’s Center City campus at 16th and Market streets when a man asked her for help in securing a car seat. The man forced her into the car, but she was able to escape from the vehicle when the man stopped at a red light at John F. Kennedy Boulevard.

Students said Temple and Campus Safety protect students but need to better prepare students for life in Philadelphia.

“Many students who come to Temple are not used to urban environments and some have never experienced one before beginning college,” Kyle Goldstein, a junior civil engineering major, said. “Temple ensures that students will be safe due to the extensive police force but do not prepare students how to be safe on their own.”

Some students said they feel the university is not notifying students of these incidents quickly enough.
“I understand that they notified us about the [Center City incident] because it was near that campus, but they should’ve also notified us when the Temple student got shot back in August,” junior biology major Jenna Mechalas said.

Donna Gray, special services coordinator for Campus Safety Services, said an e-mail notification was sent out the day after the attempted abduction.

She said she was unsure why a similar notification was not issued after the August shooting and emphasized that students should always follow the basic methods of risk reduction.

“Unless you have someone shadowing you 24 hours a day, you can’t rely on anyone for your safety,” Gray said.

She said Campus Police respond to reports but need students to be the eyes and ears for campus and inform the department immediately of any such incidents.

Risk reduction includes students programming the Campus Police phone number, 215-204-1234, in their cell phones or committing it to memory, Gray said. It also includes safety in numbers – avoiding walking alone, especially at night.

“Students are busy people, and they’ve all got a lot on their mind,” Gray said. “When you aren’t paying attention [while walking around campus], it’s important to have others with you who can pick up on things you don’t.”

Gray says that the Campus Safety Services Web site includes resources to help students become more aware. A daily crime log is published on the site, and the 2008 Annual Crime Statistics will be made available on the site after October, she said.

“One of the things I’m struck by is that it’s difficult to balance the idea of having people be aware versus people getting scared,” Gray added. “I think it’s important for people to be aware that anything could happen at any time to anyone, but that’s not something you should be scared about.”

Gray also spoke about a special self-defense class she is teaching, Rape-Aggression Defense. The two-credit course, which is offered through the Kinesiology department, aims at improving students’ awareness and risk reduction, as well as encouraging empowerment.

The only restriction is that the course is for women only, an aspect some students disagree with.
“I think males should get as much defense training as females,” Christina Graham, a senior public health major, said. “My friend got attacked over his cell phone. It’s not completely fair.”

Ryan Boskie, a junior human resources management major, said he doesn’t consider the females-only class sexist but said he thinks men are targeted just as often as women in acts of crime.

“I feel classes for males are needed as well,” Boskie said. “But I feel there should be a program or class geared toward fending off against [armed] or bigger attackers.”

He also added that RAD and any other self-defense classes offered at Temple should be advertised more to students.

Goldstein said he felt torn about the issue.

“I believe that both sexes should be treated equally, however, in this case, a separate class for females is acceptable, as they are more likely to be attacked than males,” he said. “But since there is a class for females, I think there should be a class for males as well because even though they are targeted less, they can still become victims.”

“We recognize that in our society, females are socialized different, so they aren’t always socialized to defend themselves,” Gray said. “Through this class, we want to encourage empowerment.

“It’s not that men might not need empowerment, and I certainly believe they need to respond to a situation if they are in danger of attack,” she added.

Gray said the Temple HapKido Club teaches self-defense for both men and women. The main goal of students, though, should not be to confront the aggressor. Instead, the best defense is to escape.
“We all need to be more aware, and we all need to step up,” she said. “Maybe the next step is to together a safety-awareness curriculum.

“When one of our students are attacked we take it very personally,” Gray added. “We really care about our students.”

Joshua Fernandez can be reached at josh@temple.edu.

Off-campus brawl leads to expulsion

Kevin Furey’s parents didn’t want him to transfer to Temple. They were willing to bear the burden of Catholic University’s higher costs for what they felt was a better atmosphere for their son.

However, Furey had friends at Temple and thought he would enjoy the North Philadelphia university more than Catholic in Washington, D.C. His parents relented and let him transfer.

Today, Furey wishes he never made the move. He now faces serious criminal charges and was permanently expelled from Temple for possessing a weapon and disorderly conduct. Furey believes he wrongfully charged and suffered injuries at the hands of a Philadelphia Police officer.

On April 5, 2008, Furey, a former finance major, left one of his two jobs and drove his mother’s car to Temple. He was going to hang out with his friends.

They went to a party on the 1800 block of Diamond Street, and then went to a friend’s house on the 1700 block of Monument Street, where they watched TV and ordered Chinese food.

At some point, Furey’s friend John Fisher locked himself out of his bedroom. They tried using credit cards to open the door, but nothing worked.

Around 3 a.m., Furey remembered he had a machete in the trunk of his mother’s car. He left it there after landscaping his parent’s three-acre home.

He went to his car to retrieve the machete in order to pry open Fisher’s door.

Exactly what happened next is in dispute, but it ended with Furey sitting in a hospital in handcuffs, facing charges of assaulting a police officer, terroristic threats and possession of an instrument of crime with intent.

Furey said he was standing at the trunk of the car retrieving the machete, when he heard someone call out to him from across the street. He said he saw a small group of young men walking toward him. They asked him what he had in his hand.

“None of your business,” Furey said.

They asked him again.

Furey said one of the men in the group pulled a gun when the group saw the machete.

He dropped the machete and said the man with the gun and several of his friends jumped on him, knocking his head against the pavement.

Furey struggled against the man trying to subdue him. Seconds later, a Campus Police officer showed up and held Furey down until he could be handcuffed. Then, Furey said he was dragged into a Campus Police car.

The man with the gun was Travis Wolfe, an off-duty Philadelphia Police officer from the 22nd District and recent Temple graduate. The other people in the group were Colin Anderson and Doug Segars, both Temple students, and Stephen Robinson, who has since joined the police academy.

Wolfe’s story, to which he testified in court and at a University Disciplinary Committee hearing, isn’t the same story Furey told.

Wolfe said in court he was in a vehicle, driving down the block, when he heard someone shouting. He said he rolled down the window of his vehicle and heard Furey shouting. He said he saw something metallic, which he thought was a gun handle, in Furey’s waistband.

Wolfe said he called out to Furey and asked him what was in his pants. Then, Furey quickly walked toward him, with the machete raised above his head, in what Wolfe described as a “combat mode.”

Wolfe said he stepped out of his vehicle, shouted, “Police, drop the knife,” and aimed his gun at Furey.

He said he then pulled up his shirt to reveal his badge, and when Furey dropped the machete, attempted to apprehend him. At this point, the Campus Police officer showed up.  

Furey was refused at police headquarters because of the injuries to his head and knees and was taken to Hahnemann University Hospital.

Furey said while there, the Temple police officers who accompanied him refused to call his parents,  telling him they don’t call phone numbers with the area code 610.

His parents found out a day later, when police called Andrew Haff, Furey’s friend, who then called his parents.

Furey was charged with aggravated assault, possession of an instrument of crime with intent, terroristic threats with intent to terrorize another, simple assault and reckless endangerment. The case is still open, so the district attorney’s office could not comment.

Meanwhile, his problems with Temple had just begun. After multiple postponements, a UDC hearing ended with Furey being expelled for violating the Temple student code of conduct.

Furey said the panel members, Temple faculty and students, did not seem interested in fairness.

“[The hearing] was one of the most biased things ever. It wasn’t a hearing. They had already made up their minds,” he said.

One of the panel members, English professor Keith Gumery, questioned Furey’s argument that he was afraid the group approaching him was a gang.

“Could you define a gang for me, what you believe a gang to be?” Gumery asked.

“A group of criminals with the same allegiance and mindset,” Furey answered.

“So if they were a group of friends who’d been to a club and were wearing board shorts and Hawaiian shirts, you would see them … as being a gang?” Gumery asked.

Later, Gumery questioned Fisher’s need to get into his room.

“Could you have gone to stay with someone else that night, or did you really need to get into it that night?” Gumery asked. “Was there something you needed that night at 3:30 in the morning?”

“My bed,” Fisher said.

Missing from the meeting were Anderson, Segars, and Robinson, Wolfe’s companions that night. Also missing were the officers who accompanied Furey to the 22nd District, the Roundhouse and then to Hahnemann.

Furey’s mother, Margaret Boyce-Furey, said those five witnesses were crucial to his argument that Furey was not in the wrong.

According to the Temple hearing transcript, Robinson did not want to be in the hearing. Since he was not a Temple student, he could not be compelled to attend. Both Segars and Anderson refused to attend (it is not specified which of the two refused), and the other never responded.

Another discrepancy between the two stories is Wolfe’s vehicle. Furey said Wolfe and his friends were walking down the street before the altercation, while Wolfe said he was in a vehicle. This has added to the Furey’s suspicion that Wolfe’s story doesn’t check out.

Anderson, Segars, and Robinson had attended a party at 1727 Monument St. on April 5, 2008.

At the UDC hearing, Wolfe said he drove from the 16th District up to Monument Street to pick up his friends from the party shortly before the incident occurred at 3:30 a.m.

The Furey family said they are appealing the decision to expel him from Temple.

Temple officials said they do not comment on disciplinary actions.

Travis Wolfe has referred questions to the police press office.

Stephen Zook can be reached at stephen.zook@temple.edu.

Police adopt new, simpler crime report

The Temple News will no longer run its normal “Crime Report,” as Campus Safety Services changed the format to comply with Clery Act guidelines.

Campus Safety Services recently made the switch to a differently formatted daily crime log. Executive Director Carl Bittenbender said the change was made to better comply with college crime report regulations set forth in the Jeanne Clery Act and to parallel those of other local universities.
Now, instead of a detailed description of each incident, including affiliation to Temple and whether it was reported or perpetrated by a student, employee or non-student, each report includes the crime, time, date, location and information on whether an arrest or a University Disciplinary Committee referral has been made.

Bittenbender said the change was in the works for some time, and it will help make campus crime reporting more uniform and less tedious.

A link to the campus crime map will still be available weekly on temple-news.com.

Morgan Zalot can be reached at morgan.zalot@temple.edu.

Students question residence security

A small choice can have a big impact. This proved true for sophomores Amy Gargiulo and Ellie Craig when their decision to take the elevator to the second floor of the Edge, instead of taking the stairs, had unexpected consequences.

“We decided to be lazy and go on the elevator because no one was around,” said Gargiulo, a university studies major who lives at the Edge.

Gargiulo normally takes the stairs because she lives one floor up from the lobby, but on Feb. 27, She said the elevator seemed to be a better choice.

As the elevator doors were about to close, a large 5-foot-10-inch man, who wore a green jacket and hid his face with a black hat, entered the elevator, as well.

“We asked him what floor he wanted, and he didn’t say anything. He just stood back and looked at us. We instantly became really scared,” Craig said.

Once they exited the elevator, the girls quickly walked toward Gargiulo’s room, but the unknown man followed closely behind.

Gargiulo had her key out, ready to enter her room, but as Craig went to shut the door behind her, the man threw his body between the door and the frame to prevent it from closing.

Gargiulo’s roommate, Shaina Abney, a sophomore architecture major, was sitting at her desk when the girls hurried in the door.

“I thought they were playing a joke on a friend. I was just sitting there starring at them for a full minute, and then I just saw the look on their faces,” Abney said. “And that’s when they were like, ‘Hurry, help us,’ and then that’s when I ran and started pushing on the door with them.”

Craig, seeing that the man was not backing away, tore the lid off her hot coffee and threw the coffee in his face.

“He flinched, and he kind of shuddered back, but then he just came back and stuck his foot in the door and was about to come in,” Craig said. “He never said a word, even after I threw the coffee in his face, no verbal reaction or anything like that.”

After the girls’ attempt at getting the man out of their door failed, Abney called Campus Police.

Gargiulo then called a friend from down the hall to come help them.

The man was still lodged between the door and frame, prompting Gargiulo to call for help.

Stephan Joseph, a freshman biology major, immediately came to their aid.

“I run down the hallway because she tells me to come to the room,” he said. “And I see their heads popping out, and I was like ‘what’s going on,’ and they start screaming ‘get him out,’ so I just got him out.”

The man did not say anything once Joseph wedged him out of the doorway. He then walked out the fire exit and onto Broad Street, where Campus Police eventually caught up with him.

Police apprehended the man and took him into questioning, where they determined he was mentally ill.

Campus Police then dropped him off at Episcopal Hospital on Lehigh Avenue. No charges were filed, according to Campus Safety Services.

Gargiulo filed an incident report at the Edge but has yet to hear back from management representatives. The Edge sends all of its incident reports to its headquarters in Austin, Texas.

Numerous phone calls and inquiries to the Edge went unanswered until management eventually declined to comment, citing they are not permitted to speak to the media.

Questions were forwarded to its corporate headquarters, but there was no response.

The Edge uses scan cards to identify residents of the building. Residents hold their cards up to the electronic scanner and continue to walk through the corridor after hearing a beep.

Security guards at the Edge don’t swipe the residents’ IDs as guards do at other on-campus residence halls. If residents have guests, they are to sign them in and give their guests’ IDs to the guard.

When hearing what had been done with the intruder, the girls said they were not satisfied with the result.

“This was just so scary. I mean, he was grabbing for my head,” Craig said. “He was reaching for my head and grabbing at my hair, so that made me think that he was going to hurt me. I would rather him just be locked up and not in a mental facility.”

When the girls returned to the Edge after being taken to the Campus Police station, they were met with an unexpected reaction from the security personnel who let the intruder pass easily into the residence.

“They laughingly told us to chill,” Craig said.

The girls said they were insulted by the lack of concern by the AlliedBarton security guard. Campus Police said the guard who was on duty during the incident was reprimanded and is being retrained.
However, Gargiulo said she saw the guard shortly after the incident, overlooking another guard in training.

“I don’t think that guy should be working because it’s not that hard to notice people walking by that don’t look like a student,” Gargiulo said. “We’re in North Philly. You need to do your job because if he really wanted to do something, he could have.”

Craig also has strong words for the Edge security and is calling for the guards to be fired.

“I feel like they should be fired. Every resident in that dorm puts their life in security’s hands. You do not really realize that until something like this happens,” Craig said. “What if he got in the room? What if he shot me?”

Gargiulo said she is still disturbed by the experience.

“I couldn’t sleep at night for a little bit. I’d be fine if Shaina was in the room, but if I was there alone, I would get really freaked out,” she said. “I would just be afraid the guy was going to be there.”

If there is anything Gargiulo and Craig take away from the incident, it is that they have to rely on themselves for their own safety.

“She pays more money than I do just so she can be more secure, and she cannot count on that, so I think something should be done by Temple,” Craig said. “It was a really traumatic experience. Now I know I really do have to watch my back.

“Ignorance is bliss. If nothing like that ever happens to you, you’re fine, but once it does, it makes you really scared.”

Brian Dzenis and Kellie Meyers can be reached at news@temple-news.com.

Campus Police respond to stabbing on 16th Street

Campus Police arrested a man for stabbing a woman to death in a non-Temple affiliated residence blocks from Temple, police said.

In conjunction with Philadelphia Police, Campus Safety Services officers responded to reports of a woman screaming in the 1600 block of North 16th Street shortly after 3 a.m. Oct. 12, said Campus Safety Services Executive Director Carl Bittenbender.

Upon arriving at the residence, officers from both departments entered. The suspect then stabbed the woman to death in the bathroom of the home, said Bittenbender.

Police arrested Solomon Carter, a resident of the home, in connection with the stabbing, according to the Oct. 12 crime report compiled by Campus Police.

Temple’s greener authority

There’s a new vehicle in the Campus Safety Services’ fleet, and though you may never hear it coming, it will be easy to recognize.

This summer, the department purchased a electric police vehicle to be used for sidewalk patrol, replacing one of its existing gas-powered vehicles.

“We’re still in the evaluation phase, but so far it has worked well and been very reliable,” said Carl Bittenbender, executive director of Campus Safety Services. Bittenbender initially suggested the idea of adding an electric police vehicle to the fleet.

He said the new car will be cleaner, more efficient and save the university and the police department money.

Students will notice the electric car on Liacouras Walk and on other walkways throughout campus. Emblazoned with Campus Police colors and logos, the futuristic dome-shaped car rides smoothly and quietly.

“The one downside is that it has to be plugged in when an officer is done using it, and that takes it out of commission for a while,” Bittenbender said.

The environmental benefits, however, seem to outweigh this one negative point.

“So far, [the car] has [received] a very positive response from students and the community,” Bittenbender said.

While some students have yet to notice the new police vehicle, Students for Environmental Action is one student organization that has.

“It’s really cool and it’s a good way to support the environmental movement,” said Jessica Gruber, a junior environmental studies major and president of SEA. “It also shows that everyone, including the police department, can get involved.”

The university seems to have really gotten involved. In July, the university established the Office of Sustainability, which focuses on matters such as conservation, waste-minimization and energy alternatives.

Sandra McDade, director of the Office of Sustainability, works with student organizations, faculty and the administration to promote a more environmentally friendly Temple community.

McDade said one of the university’s main goals was to reduce and eventually eliminate its greenhouse gas emissions. The electric car is a step in the right direction in achieving that objective.

“We need to have long-range planning on how we address environmental issues,” McDade said. “The [police] fleet is included in those. [The electric car] sends a message that we are committed to reducing our environmental impact.”

Though the fleet is only a small part of the transportation aspect of the office’s sustainability goals, McDade said the university wants to save on greenhouse gases however it can.

Students have expressed high hopes about future environmental action at Temple.

“This is a really great step for Temple working toward sustainability initiatives,” said Anastasios Pantelopulos, a senior envrionmental studies major and SEA member. “Hopefully more steps will be taken toward making Temple a greener campus, and maybe this will motivate students to step up their own personal efforts.”

Bittenbender said his department plans to continue the trend toward positive environmental action. If all goes as planned, the department may consider purchasing another electric car.

“It’s green,” Bittenbender said. “Everybody is doing their part, and we’re trying to do ours.”

Kevin Brosky can be reached at kevinbrosky@temple.edu.

Transportation war: The bicycle

Last spring, money got tight and fueling my car became more important than feeding myself. That’s when I decided to buy a bike.

It sat in my humble kitchen for a few days until I fought my fear of the street and took my first citywide ride. After that, my mind immediately changed — it was so liberating to pedal freely from points A to B at no cost. I didn’t even end up as a hood ornament.

Riding a bicycle throughout the city is all about confidence — especially confidence in your safety, which is why it’s important to buy a helmet. Kryptonite Locks named Philadelphia the No. 1 city for bike theft in the United States, so pick up a lock before you ride. Campus Police offers free locks for students who register their bicycles.

On the lighter side, Philadelphia is loaded with bike lanes. Spring Garden Street is a recommended passageway with a bike lane that spans from the easternmost point of Philly to University City. From there, lanes shoot off at Sixth Street, 11th Street and 22nd Street, all heading south. These lanes are very helpful for navigating the city. Make eye contact with drivers before crossing any major intersection, heed all signs and traffic lights and remember that a bicycle is considered a vehicle, so you can’t just whiz through stop signs.According to Bicycling magazine, Philadelphia is one of the top 10 bike-friendly cities in the United States. It’s no surprise, then, that 25 percent of Philadelphians safely commute on bicycles.

Be sure to check out Lauren Macaluso’s pledge for SEPTA, and Aaron Stella’s love for his car.

Rachel Nichols can be reached at rachel.nichols@temple.edu.