Trespassing

Less than four months into 2025, WashU has seen five reports of trespassing in student dorms and residential buildings on the Danforth Campus — up from three reports in all of 2024, and one break-in in all of 2023 — according to a Student Life analysis of the crime log updated by the Washington University Police Department (WUPD) every 48 hours. 

This March, two separate reports of trespassing were received within a week of each other from Dardick House, one of the dorms on the South 40. In both cases, the trespassers reportedly had “no WUSTL affiliation” and were subsequently arrested by WUPD without further incident.

On April 7, another trespassing incident was reported from The Lofts, a WashU-owned apartment complex on Delmar Boulevard. According to the crime log, the subject had no affiliation with WashU, and as of the date of publication, an investigation into the incident is still ongoing. It is not known if an arrest has been made.

Further trespassing reports were received on April 13 from Dauten Hall and on April 16 from Gregg House. Both trespassers also reportedly had “no WashU affiliation,” and the Gregg incident resulted in an arrest. However, WUPD did not disclose whether an arrest was made in the Dauten break-in. As of the date of publication, an investigation into the incident is still underway.

Angela Coonce, WUPD’s Chief of Police, declined to comment on the incident at Dauten, given the ongoing investigation.

One Dauten resident, first-year Vivek Venkataraman, told Student Life that he happened to witness a man being interrogated and searched by WUPD outside of the dorm while on a walk on April 13.

“I was walking on Big Bend Road, and then I saw cops arresting a dude,” he said. “I zoomed in with the camera on my phone, and then I realized they were looking through his backpack.”

Venkataraman then walked closer and saw that the police officers were “looking through tablets and laptops.” 

After taking several pictures of the events, he continued his walk. But about 30 minutes later, he began seeing multiple messages on the dorm’s group chat about keeping the doors locked. This was then followed by an email about stolen electronics.

“This was obviously a message I was not used to getting,” he said. “So immediately, I put two and two together and figured that the person whom I saw getting searched was the person who robbed Dauten. It must have been the craziest coincidence if he got arrested for something else, given the timing, the location, and the electronics pulled out of his bag.”

Venkataraman also mentioned that he was never informed by official sources that a break-in had occurred. 

“They didn’t even tell us what was going on,” he said. “And there wasn’t a meeting after the fact to reinforce the fact that we need to keep our doors locked. If I hadn’t seen the man getting arrested, I genuinely wouldn’t have known. I just would have been really confused at these messages about locking our doors and the stolen electronics.”

According to Coonce, if there are repeated instances of trespassing in the residence halls, or if WUPD deems that the trespasser poses a threat, then they will notify the residential community about the incident. 

She then explained that the trespassers this semester found their way into the dorms by following students who had swipe access or finding unlocked doors.

“This is why it’s so important to keep room and suite doors locked and not let anyone into a building who is not supposed to be there,” Coonce wrote.

Venkataraman also stated that he has seen unlocked doors in Dauten. 

“Whenever I walk up and down the stairs, there’s about 70% of the suite doors that are just propped open,” he said.

The Dauten incident prompted the Office of Residential Life to send out an email on April 15 reminding WashU students to keep their room and apartment doors “closed and latched at all times.” In addition to the security concerns, the email also stated that closed doors help mitigate the spread of smoke in the event of a fire.

“Leaving doors propped open or unlocked can pose serious safety and security risks — not only for you, but for your suitemates and neighbors as well,” it read.

WUPD has not published any additional information about the Dauten break-in or any of the other incidents aside from the location, time, and whether the investigation is still ongoing.

Rising Number of Reports

Based on Student Life’s analysis, from 2012 to 2018, the number of reported trespassing incidents in student dorms hovered steadily at around zero to two each year, with no incidents reported from 2018 to 2022. There was also a notable decrease in the total number of on-campus crime reports from 2012 to 2018, as the total number of crimes reported on campus dropped from 320 to 62 over that time period.

Total amount of crime reports to WUPD from 2012 to 2025 (Quinn Moore | Managing Newsletter Editor).

However, since in-person classes resumed after the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of crime and trespassing reports have steadily increased. In 2022, a total of 93 incidents were reported, and in 2024, that number rose to 171, nearly double the amount in 2022.

The reports range from harassment to fraud, with larceny comprising the majority — accounting for about 46% of the total number of on-campus crimes reported in 2024. 

“[Larceny is] the most common crime that we see on campus,” Coonce wrote in an email statement to Student Life. “WashU PD often responds to theft of bicycles, backpacks, or other personal items.”

As of the date of publication, 12 of the 79 larceny reports from 2024 resulted in a return of property. One was subsequently deemed to be unfounded, and investigations into another 10 were closed later on without recovering the lost items. A number of these cases were marked as an “exceptional clearance,” in which they were considered closed, even without an arrest or recovery, due to circumstances beyond the law enforcement agency’s control. This leaves 56 reports still pending.

According to Coonce, WUPD has a very high clearance rate in terms of closing cases. 

“We successfully close around 80% of our cases. The majority of the cases that do not get solved are low level property crimes such as larcenies,” wrote Coonce in an email statement. “We leave criminal cases status as “open” until they are closed due to arrest, expiration of statute of limitations, or in the event the victim does not wish to prosecute.” 

WashU also maintains public records of its Crime Alert system, which warns students and faculty in the event of an active threat on or near campus. As of the date of publication, no Crime Alerts have been issued for the 2024-2025 academic year, compared to 6 during the 2023-2024 academic year.

The alerts from last year included a break-in at Shepley House, in which four male subjects followed a student into the building and knocked on the door of a second-floor suite. The students inside looked through a peephole, partially opened the door, then closed it after the subjects had reportedly said “something unintelligible” to them. Moments after returning to their individual rooms, a loud noise was heard. They returned to find that someone had damaged their door.

Nothing appeared to have been taken and no injuries were reported. WUPD subsequently confirmed that all four individuals had been located and that charges were pending. Later, several Shepley residents also said to Student Life that they did not receive any official emails or notifications about the disturbance.

The break-in also prompted some students to take the tape off the side of their door frame, a practice that is used to prevent the lock from engaging. The tape allows the door to be pushed open without having to use a key. 

As of the date of publication, WUPD has closed the case and presented it to the St. Louis County Prosecutor’s Office.   

When asked about the trends, Coonce replied that there are “many reasons” why the total number of crimes reported might go up or down each year.

“We’d have to take a closer look at a specific type of incident to try to understand what could be going on,” she wrote in a statement to Student Life. “WashU is generally a very safe campus, and we rely on everyone in our community to help prevent crime.”

According to Coonce, WUPD is also actively working to improve on-campus safety. The Crime Prevention Office currently provides training classes on personal security, including the free 12-hour Rape and Agression Defense (R.A.D.) Program, which is taught in over 40 states and Canada.

Sessions are offered to groups of 20 women or 20 men (assigned, identifying, or transgender) at a time, and are open to anyone in the WashU community. The program begins with awareness, risk reduction, avoidance, and prevention, before moving on to physical self-defense techniques.

“WashU PD has numerous crime prevention programs in place to educate our community and to ensure we are providing quality service,” Coonce wrote. “The WashU PD Crime Prevention Office is available to provide classes and to answer any questions members of our community might have.”

Coonce mentioned that there are multiple ways to report crimes to WUPD. For example, the dispatch center is available 24/7 by calling 314-935-5555.

“The WashU PD Dispatchers assess the call, assign a priority, and immediately dispatch WashU PD Officers where needed. We have officers on duty 24-7 to help ensure the safety of our campus community,” Coonce wrote. 

Anonymous reporting is another option. According to WUPD, the Silent Witness Form uses an encrypted server to maintain anonymity, and the WashU Safe App has a feature that allows anonymous reporting.

Coonce encouraged students and faculty to download the WashU Safe App. 

“It is FREE and offers many features to promote student, faculty, and staff safety on campus, including important safety alerts and access to campus safety resources,” she wrote. “Campus safety is a community effort, we need everyone’s help!”

Editor’s note: Some of the language in this article was updated at 6:45 p.m. on April 24 to better reflect the nature of the trespassing incidents described in the article.