Redoubling security: Ohio State increases police presence and surveillance following recent near-campus shootings

Bailey Johnston
Fri, 27 Sep 2024 06:38:24 +0000
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Ohio State shares one of its new OSUPD cruisers for its expanded Joint Patrol Program with CPD on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. This is one of the four new cruisers aimed to increase security for students in the University District. Credit: Courtesy of The Ohio State University

Following the Sept. 18 shooting near 11th Avenue and North High Street and the Sept. 16 shooting near Olentangy River Road and John H Herrick Drive, Ohio State has strengthened its approach to student safety.

Monica Moll, interim chief of the Ohio State University Police Division and associate vice president of the Department of Public Safety, said during a press conference the university has taken “redoubling” measures for safety in response to rising concerns within the Ohio State community.

“I understand why there’s anxiety,” Moll said. “We are very concerned about it too, as concerned as [students] and their parents are, and our faculty and staff, and we’re going to be doing everything we can to make sure that we’re redoubling all of our efforts to keep them safe.”

Dan Hedman, an Ohio State spokesperson, said one specific redoubling effort since last week’s shootings involves OSUPD and Ohio State’s Department of Public Safety — also known as DPS — working collaboratively with the Columbus Division of Police to enhance its crime interdiction program. Funded by the university, this program adds more CPD officers to off-campus patrols.

“OSUPD and our Department of Public Safety has reached out to CPD formally, to just request that they encourage more officers to sign up for crime interdiction,” Hedman said. “Crime interdiction is a program the university funds, and it pays CPD officers overtime to add additional uniformed officers above regular patrols.”

As an additional part of these redoubling efforts, Hedman said CPD increased its police presence last weekend.

“CPD expanded their patrols in the University District for the weekend following [recent shootings],” Hedman said. “Their regular patrols, they added additional patrols to them.”

Third, in addition to extra law enforcement in the University District, Hedman said Ohio State’s DPS added mobile cameras to the University District in the week following the shootings.

“Two mobile cameras were added at 11th [Avenue] and [North] High [Street] earlier this week, Monday/Tuesday,” Hedman said in an email. “That is above and beyond the permanent cameras and other mobile cameras placed in the [University] District.”

Hedman said this emphasis on police presence and surveillance is a continued effort to enhance the university’s safety measures.

“Where [Moll] said redoubling, that’s what she meant,” Hedman said. “Leaning into things we’ve already been doing and expanding them as we can.”

Hedman said in recent years, the university has had a “comprehensive” approach to improve safety both on and off campus, including an expansion of Ohio State’s Joint Patrol Program. This program pairs OSUPD and CPD officers to patrol off-campus neighborhoods, according to previous Lantern reporting.

“We’ve had a really comprehensive safety plan in place for many years, starting really in fall of 2021 and adding to it each year, right all the way up until this year, where we expanded joint patrol for this fall,” Hedman said.

Hedman said this approach has installed a total of 63 license plate readers in on- and off-campus areas. These devices are used by both OSUPD and CPD for ongoing investigations and apprehending suspects in the University District.

“[License plate readers] can recognize different license plates that will hit in the system if there’s warrants out for those vehicles, or if we get a report of a stolen vehicle, they can actually search for that vehicle,” Hedman said.

Hedman said in addition to these license plate readers, there are 5,000 surveillance cameras across campus that are used by the university’s 911 communication center to pinpoint safety concerns.

“Obviously, those aren’t watched in real time because there’s 5,000 of them, but when a crime like [the Sept. 18 shooting] occurs, they’re able to pull those up in real-time, and that’s how they’re able to see where those bad actors are trying to escape toward — if it’s off campus, if it’s toward campus,” Hedman said. “And then that helps inform any messaging that we’re trying to get out to the campus community.”

Hedman said this added safety technology and personnel has helped lead to a steady decline in off-campus crime.

According to the “safety” section under Ohio State’s August 2024 Board Meeting’s Physical Environment Scorecard, the total number of off-campus crimes for the fiscal year 2024 was 890. This number is lower than the 1,201 crimes that occurred off-campus in the prior 2023 fiscal year.?

Even so, Hedman said the recent shootings near campus have made the national issue of gun violence even more relevant to the university.

“There is a problem with gun violence, and it’s not just in Columbus,” Hedman said. “It’s a national issue. And so, anytime a crime like that happens, which is what happened that led to this Buckeye alert, it’s very serious and law enforcement is concerned about it, just like parents and students are too. And so, even if crime numbers in whole are going down, when instances of gun violence occur, that’s a concern.”

Concerns about gun violence were likewise addressed by Moll, as she said the university is focused on the ongoing investigation of the Sept. 18 shooting, as well as other safety issues that are impacting Columbus’ community.

“We are certainly concerned with this specific investigation in this incident, but I’m also concerned about the broader trends,” Moll said. “So, whether it’s mental health and addiction issues, or the prevalence of guns or youth violence, these are things that we need to partner with other community and city resources as well — that we, as police officers, are certainly going to be there to protect people, and we’re going to investigate these incidents and catch up with the perpetrators.”

For more information on the university’s safety efforts in light of recent shootings near campus, individuals can visit the Ohio State News website.