With Halloween falling on a Wednesday this year, the Department of Public Safety has increased patrols to prevent any crime that might occur due to midweek partying.

DPS Chief Tony Callisto said officers are aware that the Wednesday holiday will result in more weekday activity, and officers will be out patrolling until late Wednesday night.

“We’re actually going to provide our typical weekend coverage Halloween night,” he said.

Callisto said due to warm weather and students celebrating the holiday, all local authorities took extra precautions last weekend.

He said DPS had more patrols out Saturday night than at any other time in the semester.

The past weekend was comparable to any other for Amy Cross, a junior elementary education major. She said she didn’t feel threatened by an unusual amount of crime.

“I actually felt really safe,” Cross said. “I saw Syracuse Police and DPS everywhere. They had cars all over the place.”

Callisto said there were marked police cars on nearly every corner last weekend.

This weekend will have comparable coverage by DPS and the Syracuse Police Department, but Callisto said the rainy weather is going to make a difference in the amount of crime.

“Weather tends to slow things down for us a little bit,” he said. “This next weekend’s forecast is rainy so that will certainly slow things down.”

In response to the bad weather from Hurricane-turned Superstorm Sandy, the university canceled classes for part of Monday and all of Tuesday, which has students wondering whether Halloween will be celebrated on Wednesday.

Alex Schenk, a first-year graduate student, said she thinks Thursday morning classes will keep the student population from partying on the actual night of Halloween.

“I have a feeling Wednesday is going to be uneventful,” Schenk said. “Teachers are probably sneaky and will throw in a test.”

Because it’s a holiday, Jeremy Sharot, a junior finance major, said he thinks having more students out and about than usual will present problems.

“Obviously the more people going out, the higher the crime rate,” he said.

Callisto stressed that amid the holiday festivities, it is important that students consider their own safety.

He reminded students to walk around in groups of three or more, never walk alone at night and report any suspicious activities.

Said Callisto: “If there is a problem, we want to be able to be proactive and respond as soon as possible, and the way we are able to do that is through our students reporting it to us.”

Published on October 31, 2012 at 12:45 am