Last week’s shooting in the Grove Street parking garage in downtown East Lansing has raised questions regarding current security measures in place to prevent violent crimes and catch those who perpetrate them. Of particular concern is the lack of security cameras installed in the city’s public parking structures.
While there are security cameras in a few of the downtown parking garages, like the Charles Street garage, none of these are owned by the city, East Lansing parking administrator Dan O’Connor said.
O’Connor also said there hasn’t been a need for cameras and implied the cost of installation would outweigh any potential benefits of the added security. There were only about 10 crimes reported in downtown garages in the past six months, he said. None of these were violent crimes, and the most typical crimes reported were driving accidents and property damage to vehicles.
In the most recent parking garage incident, two men were shot, resulting in one fatality. As of Tuesday, police have not announced the capture of any suspects, whom they described as two black males, the first being 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighing between 165 and 180 pounds and last seen wearing “a hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans.” The second was described as a 5-foot-11-inch black male, weighing about 200 pounds.
“The suspects were seen fleeing the scene in a vehicle described as a red four-door sedan, possibly a Lincoln or Dodge,” police said at the time.
These events have left some regular patrons of the garages feeling unsafe. Many MSU students living off campus have to use the garages to get to and from classes and other East Lansing residents use the garages for work.
Serge Adjognon and Marie Steele, both agriculture, food and resource economics doctoral students, feel safe using the garages during daylight hours. However, Steele said that she wouldn’t use the garages at night if she had the choice.
“Ever since the shooting, I feel scared,” Douglas J Aveda Institute student Shelby Kinney said.
As a student at the cosmetology school, Kinney uses the garage almost every day and, before to the shooting, only felt “sketched out” a few times. Kinney, as well as fellow cosmetology students Kenya Wray and Kaitlyn Balder, agreed that city-owned security cameras would make them feel safer.
In the wake of last week’s fatal shooting, East Lansing police officers have increased the frequency of their patrols, O’Connor said. Despite the lack of cameras, other security measures have been added to garages in the past year.
“Before (the shooting) happened, we just upgraded all of the lighting to LED in the Grove Street garage to exceed required levels,” O’Connor said.
The improvement project cost around $100,000 and finished two weeks ago.
While the police department could not be reached for comment regarding the overall security of downtown parking garages, Lt. Steve Gonzalez released a statement to the Lansing State Journal last week that said the department did “not believe that (the shooting) was a random act” and the general public was not at risk from the suspects still at large.
