News Release

 
February 10, 2005

Dear Students:

Last week, President Brody wrote you about a new security action plan for the Homewood campus, outlining steps we will take in the short, medium and long terms. His message is available online at www.jhu.edu/news/home05/jan05/trinh9.html.

We are committed to keeping you informed about the steps we are taking to implement the plan and enhance your safety and security. This message is the first in a series of brief progress reports that we will send you from time to time. While we will highlight only the most important recent developments in any particular update, I want you to know we are moving ahead on all the points covered in the action plan.

In this report, three points:

Off-duty Baltimore police will begin community patrols for Johns Hopkins during the early morning hours on Friday. We have secured officers to work night shifts on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. More shifts will be added as we are able to secure more officers. These officers will be on foot and in university vehicles and will patrol on Charles Street and in Charles Village.

BSI Silver Star Security guards will begin patrolling in the community on Monday, Feb. 14. They will conduct foot patrols at first, and, to expand their reach, will move to bicycle patrols within a few weeks. When this program is fully implemented, four guards will be on duty 16 hours a day, from 11 a.m. to 3 a.m., seven days a week throughout the school year. These guards will patrol from Charles Street to Calvert Street and from University Parkway to 29th Street. The initial priority will be patrolling along Charles Street.

We have commissioned the installation of a network of 32 cameras, the first phase of a video surveillance system. The cameras will divided between the area around the AMRs and the Charles Street-Lovegrove Street corridor from the Homewood Apartments north to the Interfaith Center. We expect to be able to begin operation of these cameras about five weeks from now; they will be monitored around the clock.

I will be back to you in the near future with additional updates on these and other points in the action plan. In the meantime, you may wish to forward this message to your parents. Please feel free to be in touch with me, Dean of Student Life Susan Boswell and Security Director Ron Mullen if you have comments or questions.

Sincerely,
Paula Burger
Dean of Undergraduate Education