2019 Fire Safety and Security Report released after delay
By Hailey Hensley
Every year, the university releases a report detailing the fire safety and security incidents from the year prior and emails it out to the student body. This year, the report was much later than usual, so the 2019 fire safety and security report was released on Dec. 23, 2020, a mere eight days before 2021.
Generally, the report is distributed to the student body in September, however, according to Director of Public Safety James Waldon, the report was distributed late this year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“With the COVID-19 pandemic, the US Department of Education extended the deadline for institutions to distribute their Annual Security Report (ASR) and Annual Fire Safety Report (AFSR) to Dec. 31, 2020, from the usual Oct. 1 deadline,” he said.
In the realm of fire safety, there were very few fires, — with only two occurring for the entire year. However, both of the fires were in Ziegler Hall, and both were ruled as “intentional,” with one occurring on Feb. 1, 2019, at 1:29 a.m. and the other on March 6, 2019, at 1:00 p.m.
Waldon was not able to provide any insight on the resolution of these incidents, stating that it was an ongoing investigation and was pending further updates.
As far as crime is concerned, the Lawrenceville campus had no arrests related to liquor or alcohol violations and 58 disciplinary referrals. There were also 14 drug arrests, all of which occurred in residential facilities on campus. There were no weapon law violations on the Lawrenceville campus. On the Princeton campus, there were zero alcohol, drug or weapons violations of any kind.
As is typical, there were no murders or manslaughters on either campus. There were two rapes on the Lawrenceville campus and none on the Princeton campus.
Tessa Douglas, senior musical theater major, emphasized her general feelings of safety on campus.
“In a typical year, I feel relatively safe walking around campus. I find comfort in the blue lights however I always wished I saw more public safety personnel towards the center of campus. Rarely did I feel unsafe walking across campus at night,” she said.
Most incident rates on both campuses stayed the same or were lower than in previous years. Waldon attributed this decrease to the community partnership on campus.
“Campus safety is a community partnership so when incidents decrease it is usually the work of the students, faculty and staff assisting public safety with keeping the Rider community safe,” he said.
