Campus Security

With a tap on his smartphone, University of Maryland student Shiv Krishnamoorthy can instantly alert police as he walks through the dimly lit corners of the College Park campus — and share with them his precise location, plus live video and audio. The app, which was developed by a university computer science professor and a team of students in conjunction with campus police, is the first of its kind in the small but growing field of smartphone apps for campus security. M-Urgency will be available to Maryland students, faculty and staff early next month.

With a tap on his smartphone, University of Maryland student Shiv Krishnamoorthy can instantly alert police as he walks through the dimly lit corners of the College Park campus — and share with them his precise location, plus live video and audio. The app, which was developed by a university computer science professor and a team of students in conjunction with campus police, is the first of its kind in the small but growing field of smartphone apps for campus security. M-Urgency will be available to Maryland students, faculty and staff early next month.

A 29-year-old man sought in the stabbing of a security guard at Howard Community College in Columbia on Monday was arrested yesterday afternoon by Baltimore police after a short chase, authorities said. The suspect, Gilbert Lee Redmond Jr., was spotted driving a burgundy Saturn sedan in Baltimore after Howard County police released his picture and a description of the car he was thought to be driving. Redmond fled when officers attempted a traffic stop, police said. The security guard, a 26-year-old woman, was stabbed several times in the head but suffered no life-threatening injuries, Howard County police said.

It was a "classic college prank," their lawyer said, and the three students visiting from Canada got busted. The cops say they stole a parking sign, an American flag and a padlock from the grounds of the Johns Hopkins University last weekend. Two men and a woman were charged with two counts of destruction of property and theft. Three misdemeanors. It was Saturday, Oct. 23, at 3:30 in the morning. Police took the 18-year-old woman, Renee Gladilen, to a District Court commissioner, who set bail at $1,000.

Cheree Hippler thought she was getting a ticket yesterday when Sgt. Beverly McGough ordered her to pull her car into a small parking lot on the campus of Anne Arundel Community College.But Sergeant McGough, a campus security officer, didn't stop Ms. Hippler for speeding or breaking any other laws. She stopped her with a reward for wearing her seat belt -- a $10 gift certificate for gas at a nearby Shell station."I thought I was getting pulled over for speeding," said Ms. Hippler, a 19-year-old freshman.

Few people have the good fortune a Loyola College student had yesterday after losing $2,200 in cash while moving into a dormitory.Thomas P. Golembeski, a 17-year-old freshman, was moving into Windwood Towers on West Cold Spring Lane about 10:30 a.m. when he lost an envelope containing the cash somewhere in the parking lot.Young Golembeski said he went into a panic when he got inside the dorm."

Western Maryland College officials will wait until after final exams to determine whether to take disciplinary action against two students arrested in a campus melee Saturday."

State forest rangers charged a Mount St. Mary's College freshman yesterday with setting a fire that destroyed nearly 3 acres of woodlands on College Mountain outside Emmitsburg.Eleven other students could face disciplinary action in connection with a stash of drug paraphernalia found by rangers searching for the cause of the blaze, school officials said.The fire was reported at 11 p.m. Tuesday by a passing motorist who saw an orange glow on the mountainside, which is adjacent to Route 15 in Frederick County.

A 43-year-old former Constellation Energy manager from Howard County has been arrested and charged with sexually assaulting at least three women since October on Anne Arundel Community College's main campus in Arnold. In each instance, police allege that Dori Joseph Costa, of the 12300 block of Fox Hollow Court in West Friendship, pretended to ask for directions, then reached inside the victims' vehicles and touched them inappropriately. He was being held at the Anne Arundel County Detention Center in lieu of $100,000 bail on charges of sexual assault and fourth-degree sexual offense after his arrest Friday, according to police.

EMMITSBURG -- Five young people were arrested at Mount St. Mary's College early yesterday after police broke up a fight at a campus party attended by as many as 250 people.Frederick County sheriff's deputies were called to a campus apartment complex for seniors at 12: 30 a.m. as students celebrated in anticipation of a day off school yesterday, Adviser Day. The day is reserved for planning next year's courses with faculty advisers."The seniors, of course, have nothing to plan for, and many were attending a campus party," said Frank Buhrman, a college spokesman.

A 43-year-old former Constellation Energy manager from Howard County has been arrested and charged with sexually assaulting at least three women since October on Anne Arundel Community College's main campus in Arnold. In each instance, police allege that Dori Joseph Costa, of the 12300 block of Fox Hollow Court in West Friendship, pretended to ask for directions, then reached inside the victims' vehicles and touched them inappropriately. He was being held at the Anne Arundel County Detention Center in lieu of $100,000 bail on charges of sexual assault and fourth-degree sexual offense after his arrest Friday, according to police.

This column reflects on what some would consider "old" news - the shootings at Virginia Tech - and I offer this observation: Reporters, editors and readers needed breathing room after this horrific event to achieve some kind of perspective on what happened there. The coverage of the worst mass shooting in American history has raised interesting questions about the direction and velocity of modern American journalism. Some readers and television viewers felt assaulted by the in-your-face presentation of the bad news - very large headlines and photos, including menacing close-ups of the shooter brandishing handguns.

It's 11:30 at night on Lovegrove Street, an alley near the Homewood campus of the Johns Hopkins University. A lone man is looking up and down the street, apparently waiting for someone. A pickup truck drives up. The man says something to the driver, gets in and they drive off. Minutes later, a block away, a woman is robbed at gunpoint by two men who speed off in a pickup. No one at the scene can describe the truck to campus security officers or to Baltimore police. This case last June might have gone cold.

BANNOCKBURN, Ill. -A 19-year-old African-American student at Trinity International University has been charged with sending racially inflammatory hate mail to her classmates, prompting last week's evacuation of minority students from the suburban Chicago school. Alicia Hardin of Chicago was charged with disorderly conduct and committing a hate crime in connection with threatening letters sent to other African-American students. The letters were written in an attempt to persuade her parents to let her withdraw from Trinity, Lake County Assistant State's Attorney Matthew Chancey said.

Even the security cameras at the Johns Hopkins University are smart now. The school unveiled its newest security initiative yesterday: 24 cameras that can alert Hopkins officials to suspicious behavior, ranging from fights to falls. The machines were originally developed for the U.S. Department of Defense and have been installed along the university's north-south corridor from 30th Street to University Parkway. The $500,000 network is part of a security upgrade begun by Hopkins on the Homewood campus after the deaths of two undergraduates in the past year.

The Johns Hopkins University will spend $2 million to increase security by hiring armed guards, increasing patrols and shuttle services, and tightening entrance checks in dorms, university officials said yesterday. The measures are in response to the killings of two Hopkins students during the past year, which sparked concerns about student safety around the university's Homewood campus in North Baltimore. The increase would raise Hopkins' annual security budget by nearly 50 percent, bringing the total to about $6 million.

The Johns Hopkins University has hired a national consulting firm to assess security measures at its Homewood campus, school officials announced yesterday. Discussions with iXP Corporation, of Princeton, N.J., were under way before the killing of Hopkins junior Christopher Elser, who died April 18 after being stabbed the day before by an intruder at an off-campus apartment building on St. Paul Street, said campus spokesman Dennis O'Shea. No arrest has been made in the killing of Elser, 20, of Camden, S.C. "This has been in the works for some period of time," O'Shea said of the security consulting contract.

The Johns Hopkins University has hired a national consulting firm to assess security measures at its Homewood campus, school officials announced yesterday. Discussions with iXP Corporation, of Princeton, N.J., were under way before the killing of Hopkins junior Christopher Elser, who died April 18 after being stabbed the day before by an intruder at an off-campus apartment building on St. Paul Street, said campus spokesman Dennis O'Shea. No arrest has been made in the killing of Elser, 20, of Camden, S.C. "This has been in the works for some period of time," O'Shea said of the security consulting contract.