Police encourage students to report suspicious activity during celebrations

As the potential of the MSU men’s basketball team’s further advancement in the NCAA Tournament excites students around campus, the MSU Police Department is attempting to up student awareness of suspicious activity by adding its own take on a national advertising campaign.

Inspired by the Department of Homeland Security’s national See Something, Say Something campaign started in 2010 that uses posters and other marketing mediums to encourage locals to report suspicious activity, the MSU Police Department and the MSU Athletics Department have worked to implement a unique take on the advertising, MSU police Lt. Jennifer Brown said.

“We’ve taken it a step further,” Brown said.

In preparation for the MSU men’s basketball tournament, the police department has released new MSU-themed posters and materials encouraging students to report any suspicious activity either by a phone call or through the department’s anonymous texting system, Brown said.

“It encourages people to act without fear of retaliation,” she said.

Brown said funding for the campaign at MSU is an aggregate of funds from the Department of Homeland Security, MSU Police and the MSU Athletics Department, but said she was unsure exactly how much is spent on the advertisements.

Increased advertising could give students on campus a nudge to help police act upon situations before they turn into bigger problems, political science senior Kelli Beavers said.

“It’s a smart idea, and depending on what it is, the texting feature could help too,” Beavers said.

Although the effort is commendable, some students likely are not going to use the service unless a major issue occurs, elementary education junior Timothy Mitchell said.

Mitchell said he isn’t convinced the marketing tactics will bring more students to call or text in suspicious activity, especially if students are at a party or social event.

“I think if students are out celebrating the basketball game, calling the police will be the farthest thing from their minds,” Mitchell said. “If they see something they don’t like, they’d probably just leave.”

Mitchell said if the basketball team continues to do well in the tournament, celebrations and partying on a large scale likely will occur — even if it’s not on the scale of parties gone wrong such as past riots at Cedar Village, he said a basketball win could push things over the edge.

“Maybe it won’t be burning couches, but something’s going to happen if they win,” Mitchell said.

Brown said since the texting service started, MSU Police have seen a positive response from it and have received crime tips from students through the service. She said she hopes more students will continue to utilize the service and other avenues of contacting police with the heightened advertising.

MICHIGAN