Campus Safety

DPS offers Special Property Checks for residents in our patrol zone during the winter break. Under the special checks program, DPS officers check the exterior of registered properties for signs of safety or security breaches. This free program is available to all residents in the Penn patrol zone, the area from 30th Street to 43rd Street and from Baltimore Avenue to Market Street.

An excellent resource for Penn and the local community. Uniformed Allied Universal Public Safety Officers provide free walking escorts, available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Escort services also extend west to 50th Street and north/south from Spring Garden to Woodland Avenue between 10 am and 3 am via the University’s partnership with the University District Ambassador Program. Again, anyone in the community regardless of whether they have a PennCard, can use these services.

Request a Walking Escort:

• • Ask any Public Safety Officer on patrol or inside a building.

  • Call 215-898-WALK (9255) or 511 from any campus phone.

  • Use building and blue-light emergency phones located on and off Penn’s campus.

Also, DPS offer special Walk Backs during Reading Days and Finals at Van Pelt Library. A Public Safety Officer will be posted at the “Split Button” on Locust Walk from 10:00pm until 3:00am from December 13-December 22, 2022. Approximately every half hour, the officer will enter Van Pelt-Dietrich Library to offer walking escorts to anyone in the building. The officer will then perform the escort and return to repeat the process.

Package Theft: Avoid Package Theft – Have a Plan! Arrange to be home for delivery or have your packages delivered to a secure location.

Theft of Occupied Vehicle: Also known as carjacking, these thefts are often crimes of opportunity. Be mindful in situations including when entering and exiting your vehicle, parking (look for well-lit areas), double-parked vehicles or faked car accidents ("fender-benders").

Pedestrian Safety: There have been some reported instances throughout University City and other areas of the city in which groups of unsupervised juveniles have committed harassment or robberies against passersby. Stay alert to your surroundings and avoid walking alone. Call Penn Police should you witness suspicious behavior or unusual congregation of adolescents.

Phone and Email Fraud: Fraud attempts persist all year long and may spike during major shopping seasons. As you filter your email and phone calls, remember that legitimate businesses and government agencies would never solicit/initiate account administration activities or ask you to provide confidential information or money via phone or e-mail. As a reminder, malicious and misleading emails, also called “phishing" emails, are the number one way that cyber-criminals begin their attacks. Even if unsure, please call us immediately at 215-573-3333 if you think you may have experienced such an encounter.

The Office of Information Security (OIS) has warned about phishing scams in the past, with phishing messages transporting you to fake webpages that are designed to trick you into sharing your login credentials, banking access, or other sensitive information.

Website “spoofing” occurs when hackers copy elements of a legitimate website, such as logos, portions of the URL or domain, language, images, fields, etc., to lure you into:

1. Clicking on links of products or tracking an order. Such links may carry malware.
    
2. Entering your username and password.
    
3. Sharing sensitive information like social security numbers, home addresses, etc.
    
4. Providing credit card or banking information, including full name, and billing address.

Last month, an email phishing attack targeted members of the Penn community. The email  embedded a link to a spoofed web site which specifically mimicked elements of Penn’s identity in its fake webpages.

How can you protect yourself from these scams?

• Pay attention to the URL. Hover over the URL in the email message or notification to examine whether it includes a legitimate domain like upenn.edu. When directed to a spoofed Penn web login or webpage, check whether the URL starts with www.upenn.edu or https://upenn.edu. A very similar spoofed URL may look legitimate, for example, upen.edu instead of upenn.edu.
   
• Read the message carefully. Before reacting to an email message, examine the From address. Is this an appropriate message for the sender to send? Is it out of character for the person? Please refrain from clicking on the Send button.
   
• Avoid clicking on embedded links in text messages. Most legitimate entities will also include the full URL in a text message.
   
• Report suspicious websites, emails, or text messages to your school or center information technology support staff, or contact the Office of Information Security (OIS) at security@isc.upenn.edu.

For additional tips, see the One Step Ahead link on the Information Security website: https://www.isc.upenn.edu/security/news-alerts#One-Step-Ahead.

While it is never the fault of the victim/survivor of a crime, there are specific patterns of criminal activity that we are mindful of at all times. Consider these steps you can take to empower and protect yourself as you travel near and far:

• Awareness

  • Stay alert and be aware of individuals who may be shadowing you as you travel.

  • Stay off your cell phone when shopping and keep it out of view.

  • Familiarize yourself with your surroundings (location, garages, parking lots, etc.) 

  • If you encounter someone aggressively asking for money, do not engage with them; walk away – go into a business or other safe place.

  • If you feel that you are being followed, walk towards a well-lit, populated area.

• Shopping

  • Limit the amount of cash you carry during your shopping.

  • Carry purses close to your body and place wallets in an inside pocket.

  • Take a family member or friend with you as you conduct a big shopping.

• Vehicles

  • Have keys ready as you approach your vehicle.

  • Place all packages out of view and secure them in the trunk.

  • Lock the doors as soon as you get into your vehicle.