Students may notice an increase in the number of suspicious persons loitering near campus as the fall semester begins.
Twelve cases of suspicious persons on campus were reported in August, which is the highest monthly rate this year, according to LSU Police Department crime reports.
“When there are people on campus, we tend to see a little spike,” said Sgt. Blake Tabor, LSUPD spokesman. “We attribute that to the fact that there’s more people on campus. When semesters begin, there are more bikes, students, vehicles, everything.”
Only three suspicious cases were reported at the beginning of last semester.
Many of these people have previously been banned from campus, Tabor said.
“There are some people we ban for the first time, but we do see those repeat offenders that tend to come,” Tabor said. “We have our regulars, like with any police department.”
Tabor said officers will ban a suspicious person who has no legitimate reason for being on campus, is acting in a suspicious manner and may have a criminal record.
“The people we tend to ban are people that come on campus to victimize students, whether that be by asking or begging for money, stealing bicycles, committing vehicle burglary or whatever their intent is,” Tabor said. “Most people here are not typically banned for any type of violent crime.”
Tabor said some of these repeat offenders have been banned as many as 10 times.
“When you have those people who continuously break that same law, there has to be a point when the summons is no longer efficient,” he said.
Severe repeat offenders are booked in East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on a case-by-case basis, Tabor said.
“When we see the same faces over and over again, those are the ones we start arresting,” he said. “We’ve really started doing that over the past three years, and it seems like it’s been paying dividends. We’ve seen a decrease in our regulars.”
Tabor said most cases are found on the north side of campus near Chimes Street, Aster Street, behind the Music and Dramatic Arts building and outside Pleasant Hall because those areas have a lot of businesses.
Michael Robert, political science sophomore, said he is typically approached by panhandlers between The Chimes Restaurant and the Shell gas station on Highland.
“They usually tell me a detailed story about how they’ve run out of gas and need a few bucks to fill up,” Robert said. “But when you hear multiple people telling you the same story, it’s kind of hard to believe.”
Tabor said most incidents occur in areas neighboring campus.
“Sometimes they get brave and try to come to campus and ask people for money, but the majority of the time they don’t,” Tabor said.
Tabor said culprits range in age from 13 to 50 and come from various locations around the city, including West Baton Rouge and Denham Springs.
“There’s no rhyme or reason to where they come from,” he said.
Tabor said it’s important for students to report any suspicious person on campus.
“If you don’t report it, we don’t know what’s going on,” he said.
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Contact Sarah Eddington at [email protected]