The Eugene Police Department spent a portion of last week promoting safety and property crime prevention in and around the University just prior to the end of fall term.
Through a series of e-mails, presentations and old-fashioned door-to-door campaigning, Eugene police personnel canvassed University area neighborhoods from Nov. 29 to Dec. 1 in an attempt to inform students what they can do to protect their homes when they are away.
The West University Public Safety Station originally planned on canvassing nearby neighborhoods for the entire week, but due to a series of illnesses at the station and reaching their distribution goals earlier then expected, they wrapped up Wednesday.
“We got all of the areas canvassed, all the door-to-door areas we had intended to go to. We covered 13th to 18th, Mill to Kincaid, every residence,” station manager Kelly Dixon said.  
The basic message of the pamphlets and e-mails was to extoll the benefits of locking up residence doors and vehicles to ensure a specific Eugene demographic didn’t take advantage of students who had left the area for the winter break.
“The bulk of the property crimes in this city, all over this city, are being perpetrated by people with meth addiction,” Dixon said. “No one in the department has ever thought that it was students committing the crimes.”
Students on the street showed mixed messages as to whether or not they had seen the Eugene police flyers and pamphlets, but still generally seemed to agree with the suggestions and warnings provided by police.
University freshman Riley Crosgrove said that she had received the e-mails, but thought that there wasn’t much the recommendations could do for freshmen and other students living on campus.
“I think these will help people off campus, but there’s not much you can do if you live in a dorm,” Crosgrove said. “Just close the doors and hope nothing bad happens.”
Senior Bryan Hollar by contrast said he wasn’t aware of the police campaign, but said the message it was sending was a good one.
“I get a lot of e-mails, and I don’t remember seeing this one,” Hollar said. “I know my roommate’s car has been broken into, but I don’t think that’s going to happen again. I think that theft isn’t that common.”
However, Hollar did express his view that it was up to students, and not the Eugene police, to prevent property crimes.
“It’s more the individual’s responsibility to lock things up; honestly, I think the police have better things to be doing,” Hollar said.
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