Following a successful pilot program last fall, the University Action Crime-Control Team initiative will continue through the spring semester.

UACT, an initiative between the Syracuse University Department of Public Safety and the Syracuse Police Department, was created in October and is made up of officers from both departments that patrol the East neighborhood and Marshall Street areas together, in addition to other safety increases.

“The program really started to take off during the pilot and we liked the results, so it was a pretty easy decision,” said DPS Capt. John Sardino.

The initiative was created in response to concerns about campus safety after a stabbing at the Carrier Dome, several incidents on Marshall Street and a string of off-campus robberies during the fall semester.

Robberies decreased during the period UACT was implemented, Sardino said, but given the number of factors involved, he was hesitant to attribute the decrease directly to UACT.

Of the 13 public safety notices sent to the student body between Sept. 4 and Dec. 15, 12 were issued on or before Oct. 28. The UACT initiative was announced during a press conference on Oct. 18 and implemented in early November.

Officials will re-evaluate the initiative after the spring semester for use during the summer and fall semesters, Sardino said.

Last fall, UACT was funded through a grant from the chancellor’s office. At the time, DPS officials said more funds would be needed if the initiative were to continue through the spring semester.

Sardino declined to elaborate on where the funding for the initiative is now coming from, saying only that the university “found the money” to continue supporting the program and that the funds were a result of a “combination of different things.”

Although UACT will continue into the spring semester, the level of crime will likely not match that of the fall semester, DPS Chief Tony Callisto said in an interview with The Daily Orange last November.

The winter months usually slow down incidents of “street-side crime” such as robberies, Callisto said.

“Just based on weather, we’re probably not going to see what we saw in the fall semester,” he said.

But when the weather improves after Spring Break and more students walk around outside, Callisto said, there is usually a spike in crime.

When that occurs, safety officials will plan to deploy UACT, Orange Watch, another patrol program, and neighborhood safety patrols to minimize the crime, he said.

Published on January 15, 2013 at 10:51 pm

Contact Jessica: jliannet@syr.edu | @JessicaIannetta