Letter to the editor: Ohio State must do better to ensure students’ safety

Shelby Bennett
Fri, 20 Sep 2024 05:03:01 +0000
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An Ohio State University Police Division car sits on the street. Credit: Bailey Johnston | Lantern Reporter

Shelby Bennett is a second-year in criminology and criminal justice studies at Ohio State.

In light of recent violent crimes near campus, it is evident that the university must do better. Ohio State has failed to provide timely and relevant updates to ensure the safety of students.?

On Monday, a shooting occurred near Olentangy River Road and John H Herrick Drive at approximately 8:30 p.m. The university did not notify students that there was a police search occurring around campus, less than a mile from Lincoln Tower, until a few minutes after 9 p.m., approximately 30 minutes later.?

On Wednesday, a shooting occurred at 11th Avenue and North High Street around 6:18 p.m., roughly a five-to-seven-minute walk from the Ohio Union. My friends and I feel the university failed to adequately inform its extended staff of the shelter-in-place advisory’s severity, as one of my roommates was told by a student staff member that it was safe to leave the Union while the warning was still in effect.

Listening to The Ohio State University Police Division — also known as OSUPD — scanner at 7:11 p.m. revealed that police thought at least one potentially armed individual was inside Drinko Hall, which is home to the Moritz College of Law. Despite having footage of the suspects entering the building, as shared on the scanner around the same time, OSUPD failed to notify students about the suspects’ location.?

OSUPD was instructed around 7:18 p.m. to hold off searching Drinko Hall until its Special Response Team — also known as SRT — arrived, according to the OSUPD scanner.

Throughout Wednesday night, I continued listening to the scanner. Around 7:24 p.m., an officer again said OSUPD had reason to believe one of the suspects had previously entered Drinko Hall but had since left the building. This suspicion was never shared with students.??

Around 7:25 p.m., officers on the scanner asked for the exterior doors of the Ohio Union to be locked; in other words, this safety measure was implemented over an hour after shots were fired.?

One officer radioed around 7:31 p.m. and said students were exiting Drinko Hall, to which another officer replied the stay-in-place advisory had been lifted, but that the calling officer should look among the group of leaving students to see if any matched the suspect’s description.

Additionally, the university’s Lexis Nexis Community Crime Map does not show a single crime committed within a one-mile radius of campus in the last seven days.?

Clearly, the university must do better. As students, we deserve better. We deserve to trust that our university will notify us of safety concerns; it’s the bare minimum.