Hopkins plagued by urban crime

BALTIMORE — It’s the nation’s most prestigious medical research institute, endowed with about $1.9 billion in government and private funding. But Johns Hopkins University also has become a place where it is easy to find victims of crime. Even during the school’s recent winter break, when a trickle of students stop by a library coffee shop, it doesn’t take long to hear about areas around the university’s Baltimore campus that change radically after dark. Students describe a renowned institution of higher learning besieged by crime that spills over from nearby areas. “I’ve had friends mugged at gunpoint,” said Michelle Slater, a 30-year-old graduate student who had a break-in at her apartment during her first year at the university. “It’s really shocking.” The killing of a Hopkins senior Jan. 23 has underscored the sense of vulnerability students feel in a city where there has been virtually a murder a day since the beginning of the new year. Linda Trinh, 21, became the second Hopkins student slain in nearby off-campus housing in less than a year. She was found in her apartment Jan. 23 across the street from the Homewood campus that about 4,000 students occupy daily. No arrests have been made, and police said the killing by asphyxiation of the popular student from Silver Spring appeared to be one of “opportunity.” Students, many just returning from winter break, planned a rally Monday night in front of university President William Brody’s home to encourage school officials to increase security. University officials have been working to address security concerns for the growing campus in a tough urban setting since April, when a security consultant made his first visit to Johns Hopkins. A week later, Christopher Elser, 20, was fatally stabbed in a random act of violence by an intruder inside an apartment house that had been rented to members of his fraternity. Mr. Elser’s killer also hasn’t been found, and his family has offered a reward for information leading to an arrest. “I don’t feel safe anywhere around here,” said Todd Smith, an undergraduate whose car was stolen near the campus. The university is speeding up plans to install surveillance cameras, a suggestion by IXP Corp., the consultant hired by Hopkins to make the campus more secure. Plans call for installing cameras on campus and at off-campus areas with heavy student traffic. The school is exploring other measures to bolster security and has improved lighting and an emergency telephone system on campus, said Dennis O’Shea, a spokesman for the university. Students have noticed improvements at nearby off-campus apartments where doormen have been hired. But a sustained and intensive effort, like those at some other schools, will be needed to bring about permanent changes. The University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, which was shaken by two homicides just off campus in the mid-1990s, embarked on a large, long-term initiative that included partnerships with neighborhood leaders and residents to revive West Philadelphia. Penn has 62 video cameras to monitor streets, and as many as seven persons to operate the cameras from a control room. “It’s very intensive,” said Maureen Rush, vice president for public safety at the university, where she noted that crime has fallen drastically in recent years. The University of Southern California also uses community-outreach programs to help fight crime around its South Central Los Angeles campus. “We have actually embraced the surrounding community because so many of our students live there,” said Gloria Graham, who oversees the crime-prevention and community-education unit at the university. Spelman College in downtown Atlanta is a gated community, said Renita Mathis, a spokeswoman for the historically black women’s college. “People who enter onto Spelman’s campus come through a gate, and at that gate we have police officers who check to see if cars have either a faculty or student ID or if they are on campus for work-related or meeting-related things,” she said. Mr. O’Shea said Johns Hopkins has been engaged with community-building projects for years.