On Feb. 5, a suspicious persons call was placed from a sorority house in West Campus. The suspicious man in question, who seemed “disoriented” according to multiple Department of Public Safety (DSP) officers, had wandered around, tapped on windows of the houses and eventually entered a dorm where the doors were left propped open by students.
Within five and a half minutes of the call, Chief Tommy Taylor had the man in the back of a DPS patrol car.
“Start to finish, [there was] five and a half minutes from the moment the caller calls us until this individual is not just off campus: criminal trespassed, will not be back again,” said Taylor.
Many students have raised concerns about campus safety and security in recent weeks. In late January, students reported seeing multiple suspicious persons throughout the new women’s dormitory, Gaston Hall. Upon following up on these calls, DPS reported that in one instance, the “suspicious persons” were a Gaston resident’s friend, and in the other, the individual was a ResLife staff member.
“There’s still a suspicious person to whoever called, but when you dig down and look, that’s not necessarily the case.”
Taylor stated that despite entering campus buildings, the individual that was trespassing in West Campus housing could not be charged with breaking and entering because doors were left propped open by residents.
“In that particular instance, that individual literally walked into housing units where doors were propped open. There was no break-in,” said Taylor.
Keeping doors propped open is one of the most dangerous things students can do on this campus, according to Taylor.
“One of the biggest issues we have with suspicious persons is… a lot of our resident students and their visitors that they allow in, prop their doors open,” said Taylor.
But students have had more concerns than suspicious persons on campus – on Feb. 7, the Wright Center hosted a private event. At 9:47 p.m., Chief Taylor sent out a campus-wide email alert to notify both on- and off-campus students, faculty and staff that the Homewood Police Department was on campus to assist with shutting down the event.
“As that event unfolded, we had two scuffles – two fistfights, and fistfights is probably a strong word – but two scuffles that broke out between two small groups of individuals,” Taylor said. “And once that happened, then we made the decision that the event was going to be closed down.”
These “scuffles” appear on Samford’s Clery Crime Log as a single report of “Assault Third Degree” that occurred at 8:25 p.m. Taylor states that Homewood Police were not present on campus at this time and were not involved with the matter.
“We actually called Homewood police in to come in and just help us clear the venue and the parking lot area,” said Taylor.
Students posted to Fizz that they were concerned that the email alert was purposefully leaving out information regarding the Assault Third Degree listed on the crime report. Taylor stated that the email had nothing to do with the charge.
“The reason that we sent out a Samford Alert that particular night – because I’m the one that sent it out – was because I wanted campus to know there was a heavy police presence down there. That’s why that was pushed out,” said Taylor. “I wish I could tell you the story was more interesting than that. But that’s it. And you can’t put all that in the Sanford alert.”
From these incidents, campus security measures have been heightened. From 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. every night, the West Campus Gate has always been students’ main entry and exit point. Now, that security has been amped.
Junior Ben Barry, who lives on campus in James Hall, is one of many students who have now been completely stopped at West Gate to check for proper Samford identification before entry.
“Instead of being waved through after viewing my parking pass like we’re all used to, I was stopped by an officer who checked both my and my passenger’s student ID,” Barry said. “He then glanced towards the backseat and asked if there was anyone else in the vehicle before sending us on our way.”
This experience has become the norm throughout campus.
“I was surprised that there wasn’t an announcement about this change,” said Barry. “I’ve heard from others that you might have to wait a while if you show up without your student ID on you.”
Taylor said that yes, this change was because of campus security concerns – but it was also something he had wanted to see in place for a while, but could not realistically do with the construction Samford was undergoing prior to this school year.
“In an ideal world, I would love to see every single vehicle stopped. And that’s something because of where we are now and just the world that we live in, we try to do that now,” said Taylor.
He explained that if an individual without a Samford ID is trying to enter campus with Samford students, then one of the Samford students in the car with them can reasonably vouch for them, and they will be allowed to enter campus.
“Our goal is to stop and identify as many people in as many vehicles as we can, because I think that’s the safest thing to do,” said Taylor. “It might not be convenient, but I think it’s the safest thing to do.”
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