Harvard Police Take Survey On Student Reaction to Crime

The Harvard Police are currently conducting a survey to determine the number of students who have been victims of crime on campus and student attitudes towards police.

"We're doing it to get more information about crime and to get a good data-base about how much crime is unreported." David L. Gorski, director of police and security, said yesterday.

The police are administering the survey--the first they have ever done--to 600 undergraduates throughout the College.

Marc Yanofsky '77, a consultant to the police, who developed the survey, said yesterday, "There has never been an effort to understand how students think about crime."

"There hasn't ever been any formal student input," he added.

Yanofsky said he hopes the survey will help the police become more responsive to students' attitudes, with improved education and crime prevention efforts.

"It seemed that there are a lot of serious gaps in knowledge of student attitudes towards police," Yanofsky added. "It seemed useful to find the real rate of crime and if there is a problem of underreporting."

The eight-page survey asks whether students have been victimized, if so, whether they called the police and if they did not call, why not.

It also asks for student reaction to measures that could decrease crime, such as more police in cars, stricter arrest policy for those caught violating a law on Harvard property, and better lighting throughout the campus.