Simple door and window locks may be some of the most powerful
tools for students in the fight against theft, says Ann Arbor
Police Department Sgt. Ed Dreslinski.

Due to a recent rise in what are called “walk-in home
invasions,” or break-ins that involve no forced entry, AAPD
is asking Ann Arbor residents and especially students to be more
careful to lock doors and windows. Dreslinski stressed that
students should lock doors when leaving “either to go to
class or home for the weekend or even just sleeping in their
residence.” He said they should also put pressure on their
landlords to install and maintain safety devices in rental
properties.

“By not taking these simple precautionary steps,
they’re leaving themselves more susceptible to being a
victim,” he said.

On the other hand, Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Diane
Brown said that on-campus crimes, including home invasions, have
fallen in the calendar year 2003, compared to 2002. She said home
invasions have fallen 55 percent, and she has not heard of a spike
in on-campus break-ins similar to the off-campus increase noticed
by AAPD. The number of break-ins in campus buildings fell from 150
in 2002 to 67 in 2003; much of the decrease happened in the
residence halls.

Brown attributed the decrease to new campus security initiatives
implemented in 2003. These measures started with locking residence
hall entrances to non-residents 24 hours a day, and continued with
automatic door locks on residence hall doors, additional security
and police patrols and education awareness efforts similar to those
of AAPD.

Dreslinski said he did not know how many break-ins had occurred
since the start of the school year, but said there have been at
least three incidents in the past two weeks where people have
awakened to an intruder in their homes. Three apartments in
University Towers, an off-campus apartment complex, were also
broken into last weekend, apparently without the use of force.

LSA senior Greg Mowatt said he usually locks the door of his
off-campus apartment. “I’ve left it unlocked and
haven’t had any problems,” he said.

He added that he thinks parties, where houses are filled with
strangers, represent a bigger danger than doors occasionally left
unlocked.

AAPD is also asking neighbors to look out for each other, be
aware of their surroundings and aware of their neighbors houses.
“Sometimes we get calls of a (breaking and entering) and
we’ll have a neighbor say, ‘I saw someone looking in
the window an hour ago,’ ” he said. “We’d
like to know about that — we’d like to stop something
before it happens.”

Engineering freshman Tiffinique’ Walls, who lives in a
North Campus residence hall, said she thinks her dorm, which just
got electronic door locks, is safe. She added that students
sometimes make bad decisions. “They prop doors open —
I’ve kicked the rock out plenty of times,” she
said.

LSA freshman James Robinson said he thinks the University is
doing a good job of protecting students. “There’s only
so much you can do,” he said.

Dreslinski said that if students finds someone in their house or
room, they should call 911 as soon as the person leaves. He also
suggested going to a neighbor’s home and calling the police
to get out of harm’s way. He advised against threatening the
invader.

“The last thing you want to do is inflame a situation.
Most of these people don’t want to get caught, they want to
get away with some financial gain,” he said. “Chasing
them or confronting them might escalate the situation — we
haven’t had anyone accosted or assaulted yet, and we want to
keep it that way.”