With last Wednesday’s blue-hooded bandit still at large, he may become the latest addition to what has become a long list of cold-case files for local police.
Since 2008, Ohio University Police Department has issued 33 crime alerts –– 29 of which still remain active, according to OUPD’s website.
OUPD’s closure rate is “pretty average,” OU Police Chief Andrew Powers said.
As of Friday, Miami University Police Department has issued 56 crime alerts since 2008 –– 53 of which remain unsolved, according to MUPD’s website.
Ohio State University Police Department has issued 73 crime alerts since 2008, 33 of which were armed robberies, according to OSUPD’s website.
OUPD has issued one crime alert for an armed robbery in that time period, as last week’s armed robbery was classified as an “emergency notification.”
When a violent crime takes place in the vicinity of campus, OU is legally bound to warn students and faculty using “emergency notifications” or “crime alerts,” Powers said, adding that Wednesday’s armed robbery necessitated an emergency notification.
“Crime alerts” are used for past crimes that may represent an ongoing threat to campus safety, Powers said, adding that last week’s incident is not considered an ongoing threat.
OUPD’s 29 active investigations do not necessarily mean the campus is unsafe, Powers said.
“The reality is that if every police department posted crime alerts like we do, you’d probably see way more active investigations than we have,” Powers said.
Last week’s armed robbery caused OU to close its Athens campus for a non-weather related reason for the first time in about 40 years.
Despite this, Powers said that the fugitive might never be apprehended.
“For this situation here, there are no other witnesses that have come forward at this point in time and as a result it may be that this case will never get solved,” Powers said. “The victim didn’t know who the person was, so it’s going to rely on people that recognize the description, may have seen the person, or may have seen something going on to come forward.”
The case has been turned over to Athens Police Department, he added.
“We have no new information at this point in time and it’s an APD case because it happened in an area that is under their jurisdiction,” Powers said. “They’re taking the lead on it and, to my knowledge, there has not been an arrest made at this point in time.”
The department’s investigative unit will do whatever they can to close the cases they take on, said Tom Pyle, APD police chief.
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