Public Safety used video technology to help capture a man responsible for several etchings of naked women in elevators in Bender Library and Mary Graydon Center, according to Michael McNair, director of Public Safety.
The etchings appeared off and on for a year, and the man was caught Feb. 14 by Public Safety.
"We reviewed reports that we had and tried to look for a pattern," McNair said. "We caught a break when he [etched drawings] in the elevators with cameras in MGC. Though we can't connect this person [to other similar incidents] beyond a shadow of doubt."
Public Safety was able to create a picture on Feb. 10 of the suspect based on the camera recording in the Mary Graydon elevator to show to library staff and others, The Eagle reported.
The man entered the library on Feb. 14 and library staff recognized him from the picture. The man, who is in his 60s, according to Public Safety, is not affiliated with AU. Although Public Safety did not arrest him, he is forbidden from coming on campus. Public Safety would not release any more information about the man.
Since December 2003, graffiti of naked women appeared in elevators across campus.
"The graffiti had a particular characteristic and was easily identified as being the same hand," said librarian Patricia Wand. "We'd clean it, sand it, paint it, and it would be gone for a couple months before it would start appearing again, and was very elusive. Public Safety was able to help us narrow down scope of who it might be."
The removal of the graffiti was "very expensive," Wand said. The cost of removing the graffiti varies according to the surface it was etched into. Most of the time the drawings were etched into a metallic surface, so they had to be sanded off.
"Graffiti breeds graffiti," Wand said. "We wanted to get rid of it as quickly as possible, it was very offensive. We try very hard to keep the environment of the library conducive to study."
Graffiti is rare for the library, according to Wand. The only other incidents were last summer during its remodeling, when graffiti was found in the restrooms. The individual arrested then is not related to the recent case.
When Public Safety questioned the man, he "gave us a bogus story about why he was on campus. He said he was affiliated with another school, but we called that school and they did not know who he was," McNair said.
"He sometimes slept in the lounge of Bender Library. He had no business here," he said.McNair said AU should invest in more video technology to prevent crime.
Currently, there are only cameras in Mary Graydon, though there are proposals for cameras in several other places.
"We want to help students feel safer," he said.
McNair said new video technology is inexpensive and common in security operations. The technology is completely digital, so Public Safety could "freeze frame, zoom in, do things we couldn't do before," McNair said.
The current way Public Safety solves crime is "very expensive," according to McNair, because it involves extra staffing, extra hours and making extra phone calls.
"Most police departments only solve about 25 percent of cases reported," he said. With new technology and digital recording, "they prevent the crimes entirely."
"In modern police work, the idea is to focus on prevention, not apprehension," McNair said. "Crime will still occur, but we can minimize the risk."
McNair said he hopes to have security cameras in places like the Woods-Brown Amphitheatre, where women were groped last year.
"You can't go into a department store, or even McDonald's, without seeing a security camera. You just can't. I want to bring more technology to campus in terms of security, to make people feel safer," he said. "I want to use the latest technology to deter and detect crime"
