Mount Pleasant taking a bite out of crime

Larcenies, motor vehicle thefts
just a few of the many crime
figures down in Mount Pleasant

By: Dan Schultz

Edited by: Alexis Kowaleski and Trisha VanKoughnett

According to the Mount Pleasant Department of Public Safety’s 2007 annual report, Mount Pleasant was a safer city in 2007.

Robberies decreased 40 percent, and rapes dropped 20 percent – even the number of calls requiring service from the Mount Pleasant Police Department declined from 10,848 to 10,400 in 2007.

“Of course we like to see them (crime statistics) stay low,” Captain Fred A. Harris said.

Harris, the associate director for the Central Michigan University Police Department, moved his arm up and down to show the hills and valleys of crime rates he has seen in his 29 years as an officer.

Still, many of the crime statistics for 2007 are down. Forgeries plunged nearly 50 percent, from 21 to 10, and larcenies declined from 261 to 234.

“We enjoy seeing low numbers, but we’ll always keep at it,” Harris said. “That doesn’t show the incidents that weren’t reported, though.”

Reports of stolen items, sexual abuse, and other such incidents give the police a decent lead. It is a tool that law enforcement can not stress enough.

“We do beat the drum quite often (about reports),” Harris said. CMU’s police department has brochures and presentations to explain the usefulness of reports in many situations.

CMU’s police department offers an array of services too, from an engraver to imprint some form of identification on a valued item, to “blue-light emergency phones” placed across campus.

“I feel better with those phones around, that’s for sure!” Mary Manoogian said.

Manoogian, a Sterling Heights Senior, has been on campus plenty of times at night. “I have their locations memorized so I know where to walk… and where not to walk late at night.”

CMU campus currently has 26 “blue-light emergency phones,” which are intended to report emergencies or crimes in progress to the police.

“It’s good to know the police are doing their job so well,” Manoogian said. “That makes me feel safer.”