SEATTLE – Mike Cummings spent Thursday cleaning up around the Pi Kappa Phi house on Greek row near the University of Washington. As he cleaned the cement and outside of the big white mansion on the hill, his safety and that of his brothers was in the back of his mind.
"Our president and risk managers often go check the windows; make sure they're not tampered with," he said. "When we see something wrong we can fix it before something bad happens."
Cummings said in the past, the Pi Kappa Phi house dealt with what other fraternities and sororities have been going through in recent months: a break-in.
In April, police warned of four UW sorority burglaries in which someone took electronics like tablets and laptops. It happened mostly in the early morning hours.
Just last month, there were eight home burglaries north of Northeast 45th Street. Many of the crimes happened in occupied UW fraternity houses, according to police.
Seattle Police officers said in a meeting earlier this week that its burglary unit is partnering with UW police to educate students. Investigators believe one group that's breaking into cars could be responsible for property crimes in the area.
"I think it sticks to the back of everybody's mind to some extent," said Jack Guisness, a sophomore member of FIJI. "I feel like the more people who are aware of it and are in the know, the better we can do."
Investigators are suggesting sororities and fraternities lock and secure windows and doors, light their exteriors, and register their electronics. You can do that by clicking here and then clicking on the Crime Prevention tab.
Mike Cummings said risk managers might also consider better security systems and locks this semester.
"If we just shrug it off after a while, it's just going to keep on happening," Cummings said. "What we can do is learn from our mistakes in the past, see how they did it, what they did and kind of beef it up so we don't have to deal with that problem, learn from our mistakes [and] learn from our past to make our future safer."
