Some University of Cincinnati students have joined forces to make Cincy Crime Stoppers, an Instagram page that will let other students know about crimes that happen on campus.
The Instagram page’s description said that “Bearcats who live off-campus and have been a victim of a crime” could “send in anonymous tips to help keep the community safe.”
It was criminal justice student Hailey Smith who said, “We’re a group of students who have all been victims of different things while we’re at UC.”
“We noticed that there needed to be some sort of outlet for students to be more aware of what’s happening around the campus,” she said.
As Smith put it, “Cars on our street get broken into at least a couple times every month.” This is why the students needed a way to let each other know about what was going on on campus. She said the university’s warnings are sometimes “vague,” but the Instagram page would be as clear as possible so that other students would know about crimes happening in the area, both on and off campus.
Smith also said, “Of course, we want to confirm information before we send it out. We also want to send out the most important information as well as this information that UC hasn’t put out.”
They did this because they were sad about the death of a friend, Benjamin Addison, who was 21 years old. Benjamin was shot and killed while he was trying to stop someone from stealing his car.
He tried to stop two people from robbing him in his car but was shot and killed by what police say was a 17-year-old who was trying to break into Addison’s car.
