KPD says off-campus crimes generally ‘nuisance’ incidents

While the semester winds down, many students at Keene State College begin their search for housing for next year. Students who choose to live off campus take into consideration things like cost and proximity to campus.

They should also consider how to live safely in neighborhoods outside of the campus and throughout the city. Keene might not seem like a daunting place to some, but crime takes place everywhere.

The Keene Police Department Web site provides crime statistics for the city of Keene, but are currently only up-to-date through December 2009.

The report indicated that last year there were 111 cases of burglary, 379 cases of assault and 388 cases of property destruction in Keene.

The Web site states that in crimes where more than one offense occurs the lesser crime is not reflected in statistics.

According to College Liaison Officer John Stewart, the most common types of crime that affect off-campus students are “nuisance crimes.”

“These tend to be vandalism, thefts from vehicles, noise complaints and fights,” Stewart said. “Although we do have the occasional serious crimes such as robberies and burglaries.”

Sophomore Samantha Rielly plans to move off campus next year and said while her biggest concerns included costs and utilities, some crime reports in Keene concerned her.
“I've heard about people stealing things from cars,” Rielly said. “I'm mostly concerned with vandalism and things like that.”

Stewart said students should research areas they want to live when deciding to move off campus. Stewart said Code Enforcement, the KPD Web site and the city's Web site are places to get started.

“Students can come to the station and talk to me and I can provide them on information on the area they're looking to live,” Stewart said. “I can answer things about the make-up of the town, if there's lots of small children or older adults or college aged people, and depending on the make-up, they could determine if anybody will complain about parties.”
KSC sophomore Joe Boucher plans on moving off campus next year into an apartment on Winchester Street. Boucher said, while cost and convenience were the biggest factors in his choice of living, he was wary of some neighborhoods in Keene.

“I tried to avoid looking at places like Marlborough Street and the backside of Blake Street where there's less college kids,” Boucher said. “I haven't had too many problems with the local people, but when I have, they've been there.”

Rielly also said neighbors have played a role in deciding on a place to live.
“I'd rather live with neighbors that are college kids than locals,” Rielly said.
The KPD Web site also links to a “crime map” of Keene, which gives up-to-date information on where crime is happening in the city of Keene. The map can be sorted by types of crime, location or date of occurrence. According to the Web site, the mapping service is “free to the public and allows citizens to receive automatic daily, weekly or monthly e-mail alerts [when] crimes occur near their home, office or local school.”

The KPD also runs a sex offender registry for Keene which requires that all sex offenders living in the city be registered. The information for where sex offenders live can be found on KPD Web site.

Detective Don Lundin, who runs the sex offender registry for Keene, said there currently 44 registered sex offenders in the city. That number doesn't include sex offenders who may work in Keene.

“This is all online information, but we also will have concerned citizens who will call and will get in touch with me and if it's information I'm privileged to share with them, I'll do that,” Lundin said.

The site also contains a link to an up-to-date police log for the city of Keene.

Brian Anderson can be contacted at banderson@keeneequinox.com.