Loyola’s Department of Student Involvement grilled food and played music as local police agencies chatted with students about crime at the university’s annual “Day Out Against Crime” Tuesday, Oct. 18. Held in the Peace Quad, the event aimed to raise awareness about how students can protect themselves against crime and the health and safety resources available to them

on campus.

According to Courtney Williams, Loyola’s associate director of student involvement, his team partnered with the Loyola University Police Department, Residential Life, Health Advocates, the Sexual Assault Response Team and several New Orleans police organizations for the day.

“Day Out Against Crime is one of our annual events,” Williams said. “Its purpose is to promote crime prevention and to build community on our campus.”

Williams said the event was a success.

“It did rain earlier [in the day] so we lost a few people, but we’ve had a wonderful turn out despite the weather,” he said. “The goal was to get people out here, to raise awareness, to make people understand how they can be safe and secure in the city, and I think we’ve definitely met that goal.”

Patrick Bailey, director in chief of Loyola’s police department, said Loyola has been hosting this event annually for almost 30 years.

“We have been doing it every year; this is the first time we’re doing it during the day,” Bailey said. “We’re going to continue with crime prevention throughout the year. We’ll have similar events.”

Corporal Larry Kooken explained the event is associated with National Night Out Against Crime.

“We’re not hosting other events around New Orleans, but other agencies are, like the New Orleans Police Department,” Kooken said. “Most of the time they’re at night for the National Night Out Against Crime. We chose to do it during the day so that we’d have the participation of the students.”

Kooken said LUPD hoped to raise awareness of what the on-campus police department does to prevent crime.

“We’re trying to get crime prevention awareness out to all the students, basically telling them what we do as a department, as well as some of the things we offer and our partnering agencies around here,” Kooken said.

Bailey is proud of Loyola’s participation in the city-wide events for Night Out Against Crime.

“This past Sunday we had the kick-off for Night Out Against Crime, and out of twelve universities and colleges in the New Orleans area, we were the only university police department represented there,” Bailey said.

Students had mixed reviews about the Day Out Against Crime.

Jaime Johnston, English writing senior, said she felt ambivalent about
the event.

“I feel like the campus environment, in general, is a little weary of police force,” Johnston said. “I don’t feel like the audience is here for this.”

However, Rita Desouza, psychology senior, enjoyed the event and feels like it’s good that the school has events about crime prevention.

“I think we should have more of them,” Desouza said.