Student Crime in the Capital District

By: Dan Murphy

11/07 ALBANY: Every January and June, parking spots appear where they haven’t been seen for months, Ontario Street becomes navigable on weekend nights, and the deafening roar that once spilled out from the midtown bars turns to a quiet whimper. There is perhaps no group of people in the city that this is more evident to than the police. This begs the question; do the police treat the student population any differently than the city’s year-round residents?

Crime is a hot topic on college campuses across the country. One thing every parent sending a student off to college worries about is their general safety. What most parents don’t consider is the impact their child will have on the townspeople’s safety. Upon inspection of the University at Albany’s uptown campus crime blotter, reported crimes for the last week of October 2007 involved not only students being victimized, but committing crimes as well. On October 24 and 30, there were counts of grand larceny reported on campus. Two DWI’s were leveled on students in the closing week of the month, as well as an assault that landed a male student in Saint Peter’s hospital with facial lacerations.

In response to these sorts of incidents taking place not only on the uptown SUNY campus, but in the downtown section of Albany as well, the University Police Department and the Albany Police Department have teamed up with The College of Saint Rose Safety and Security Department to form a partnership protecting students from these dangers of city life called Operation Safe Corridor. The corridor in question refers to a section of Albany near the two central Saint Rose and University campuses. These sections are Quail Street from Western to Central, Ontario Street from Western to Yates, and Western Avenue from Main to Quail.

The operation was initiated several years ago when, according to Saint Rose Safety officer Brenden Victorson, a group of concerned Saint Rose security officers made a video of the lewd behavior college students participated in and fell victim to in the area immediately surrounding Pauly’s Hotel on the corner of Central Avenue and Quail Street. The footage was used to display to daytime employees and officials the kinds of activities college students were engaging in on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. These incidents ranged from public urination to violence in the middle of the street.

Officer Brendan Victorson of the Saint Rose Safety and Security Department was involved in the initial filming. As a resident of the Pine Hills area, he took it upon himself to shed light on the sorts of things taking place in his neighborhood he and his colleagues displayed in the initial video. The partnership is meant to control “these giant groups and the incidents occurring from these groups,” he said in reference to the crowds of students in the video.

The tactics implemented in correlation with Operation Safe Corridor involve, most importantly, a heightened presence of officers in the affected areas. Cameras and increased numbers of uniformed officers have been scattered throughout the region to let anyone, student or non, know that their behavior is being monitored. Extra street lights and “ BLUE -LIGHT” 911 phones have been added to the streets to help anyone in duress be more easily identified and attended to. A new taxi stand was added to the corner of Madison Avenue and Ontario Street to reduce the amount of loitering in the road.

“You don’t see as much of the milling around in the street,” said Victorson.

Educational programs have also been implemented to raise awareness not only of the threat the exists in the neighborhood, but how to counteract that threat and keep yourself from being a target of crime.

“The students in the area are very important to Pine Hills,” said Victorson.

While their presence is valued socially and economically in Pine Hills, the increase in the amount of students in the area and the subsequent amount of incidents involving these students has not rubbed off well on some of the permanent residents of the neighborhood. With loud parties and broken glass littering the streets all nights of the week, some residents have moved elsewhere, which Victorson, as a Pine Hills resident, can sympathize with.

“You can understand why the people left in the first place,” said Victorson. “It’s about being a good neighbor. That would ease the tensions between the community itself and the student population.”

The existence of Operation Safe Corridor verifies the heightened attention the Albany Police give the local college residents. While it is apparent that police recognize students not only as potential victims of crime but criminals as well, it is the obligation of the Albany Police Department to ensure that these students are dealt with just as any permanent resident of the city would be. For example, if a person is charged with making graffiti or possession of graffiti instruments, New York State law mandates that participation in a graffiti removal program is to be a condition of the corresponding sentence.

Ryan Uellendahl is a 19-year-old sophomore at SUNY Albany from Long Beach, New York. On this past Labor Day, he was arrested for criminal mischief, making graffiti, and possession of graffiti instruments. He was apprehended by two officers in a parking lot near Stuyvesant Plaza along with a friend who was present. He said that he and his companion were treated with disrespect and not issued their rights at the onset of their arrest.

“They kept me and my friend who got arrested as well handcuffed in a small room and just continued to lie in all forms to get me to say things to make their job easier,” said Uellendahl.

He was later convicted of criminal mischief, fined $200, and sentenced to 75 hours of community service. He was not mandated to perform graffiti removal, although the option has been left open to him.

“The courts realized it was a first offense and I was a good student/citizen and charged me accordingly.”

While Uellendahl’s sentence matches up with the legal precedent for such crime, it is but one case in a sea of legal incidents that occur every year in the city of Albany involving college students. Treatment can vary from case to case. Detective James Miller, spokesperson for the Albany Police Department, believe that Uellendahl’s experience matches up with how student-related cases are normally dealt with.

“The courts tend to have some leniency when it comes to students, especially if the crime is not serious and they have not gotten in trouble before.”