OU Libraries will expand its “Gotcha” program to include all OU campus libraries, said Sarah Robbins, OU Libraries spokeswoman.
OUPD started the “Gotcha” program about three years ago, hoping to teach students responsibility when it came to leaving their valuables unattended in the Bizzell Memorial Library, Robbins said.
“When a student leaves their valuables — whether it be a computer or a backpack — alone for more than five minutes or so, an employee or security personnel will pick up the item and take it to the circulation desk for safekeeping,” she said.
Robbins said in place of the item, a note will be left explaining where students can retrieve their belongings.
“Printed on bright-colored paper, it reads: ‘Gotcha! Can you afford the loss of your property? Next time, it may not be the University Police Department or a staff member that finds your property left unattended. Please don’t you leave property unattended! Security is everybody’s business,’” Robbins said. “Then there is a place for the date and time to be written on the slip.”
Robbins said although the note says “the University Police Department,” OU Police is not directly involved with the program.
“OU Police has a ‘Gotcha’-like program in place on other parts of campus, but Bizzell has their own security personnel not directly associated with OU Police,” said Lt. Bruce Chan, OU Police spokesman. “OU Police does not take people’s personal belongings.”
Chan said OU Police will patrol Bizzell, but the only time OU Police will become involved is when something is intentionally stolen.
Robbins said the slips are going to be reprinted in the near future.
“We do this program for two reasons,” Robbins said. “One, we want to teach students to be responsible with their items in the library. And two, it is better that library personnel take the item where it can easily be picked up by the owner than someone actually stealing the item and it never been seen again.”
According to OU Police reports, more than $12,000 in electronics and personal items were stolen on campus between Sept. 3 and Oct. 3.
“Students may be seeing an increase of these slips because we have dispersed the slips to other library departments for distribution,” Robbins said. “In the past, only library security distributed the slips, but now, other departments that work throughout the library have copies of the slip to place on unattended items. We are trying to raise student awareness on this issue of protecting personal belongings in public spaces, and this is just one way that we accomplish that goal.”
Students said they appreciate the thought behind the program but felt students should take responsibility for their actions.
“I saw a guy across from me one day get his laptop taken from a security guard,” said Chris Gibbons, botany and chemistry junior. “It seemed a little weird to me that an OU employee would be taking a student’s personal belongings.”
Gibbons said people understand the risk they take when they leave their items unattended.
“I leave my stuff unattended a lot for just a few minutes here and there when I’m in Bizzell,” said Shannon Monroe, zoology senior. “It makes sense that they would want to make us aware of the dangers of leaving your stuff around, but I think there is a better way to teach students how to be responsible than taking their stuff.”
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ParksandRec4 2 years, 6 months ago
This program seems like little more than a practical joke. I mean, just look at the name... it's called Gotcha for crying out loud.
OUguy 2 years, 6 months ago
1) See cop take stuff 2) Chase cop down 3) Kick him in groin 4) Curse loudly and make a scene 5) ????? 6) PROFIT
jfreezy 2 years, 6 months ago
No need to teach grown adults responsibility. This whole program screams of "I know how you should take care of yourself better than you do" liberalism. Geez, relax people, just don't be dumb. Plus in the course of a year, how much is $12,000 really? That's not that much considering a laptop costs anywhere from about $1000-3000. So that's only maybe like 6-8 thefts a year in a library system that accommodates a student body of over 20,000. And that's not even factoring in iPods and cell phones which would probably reduce the number even more. So really, it doesn't seem like much of a problem. This program just seems like a waste of time and effort. Think about being an employee and having to monitor if someones been gone for 5 min. This is stupid, change it now.