This past week, an armed man robbed the PNC bank in the University Union on campus. We went around and asked different girls how they felt about the robbery, safety on campus, and what they think could be improved to make our campus safer.
“I think the response was very good.I was sitting in the lobby of Liberal Arts when it first happened and I moved up stairs. Not having a class until 11 a.m., I’ll admit during the brief minutes when they said the suspect might be in liberal arts and no one knew whether he was running around with a gun (or, instead chilling on a bench down stairs), I was scared that I wouldn’t have anywhere to go. I think it was pretty stupid for the guy to rob the bank and then run into Liberal Arts. I guess he wanted to blend in, but that’s kind of difficult with a group of police chasing after you. I think it was a great example of how well the text messaging system works. I think they might want to upgrade the announcer though. I heard the message, but I know a lot of people, had trouble understanding it.”
-Rachel Patek, Early Childhood Education, ’15
“I think they handled it very well. Everything seemed to be taken care of very quickly and I personally felt safe during it all. I thought the incident was ridiculous and although it scared me initially, I thought it was taken care of well.”
-Emily, Mass Communications, ’15
“I think TUPD and the Baltimore PD responded very quickly. Although I couldn’t understand the alert system very well, it’s good to know that it works; it just has a few kinks that need to be taken care of. I personally don’t know why anyone would rob a bank in the middle of a campus like ours. There is no possible way to get away unless you’re a mastermind criminal like one on T.V. where you know how to plan everything out down to the precise minute, but that’s just my opinion.”
-Erin Smith, Mass Communications, ’14
“I think that they responded to the incident very fast. I was surprised that they were able to catch the suspect so quickly. I was a little disappointed however, that there were no emails sent until after the fact. I know that their were texts sent but, not everyone received those.”
-Caitlin Long, Family Studies, ’13
“I think they did a very good job alerting everyone as the situation occurred, through the speakers and texts. They also arrested the suspect very fast, making everyone feel a lot safer. I only wish they had given us more information about the circumstances.”
-Chelsea Inge, Mass Communications, ’15
“I feel like the crime rates in Towson have been steadily climbing in the past few years. Most of our crime alerts used to be about off-campus crimes. Now, we’re faced with more on-campus crimes than I think Towson would be proud to admit. We had an armed robbery in the middle of the day in our student union. That’s ridiculous! I’m glad they got the suspect though because, let’s be honest, more often than not TUPD isn’t catching anybody.”
-Stephanie Areizaga, Criminal Justice, ’13
How do you think the Towson University Police handled the incident? Do you feel safe on campus? Let us know in the comments below!