OUPD, OUSAP and The Women’s Center host a brown bag for stalking awareness month helping shine the light on how serious stalking can be.
Most people don’t think much about hitting the send button to share a photo with a friend, but for some hitting the send button could be the difference between life and death.
“I was able to take information about a random student that used publicly available information on the Internet,” said Detective Richard Sargent with the Ohio University Police Department. “I was able to find out an alarming amount of information about the person and in the wrong hands that information could be deadly.”
January is National Stalking Awareness month and the Women’s Center, the Ohio University Survivor Advocacy Program and OUPD are hosting a brown bag event focusing on cyber stalking. Detective Sargent will be speaking and giving the law enforcement perspective on how serious of a crime stalking is.
Sargent said if someone takes a photo and sends it to a friend, he or she is no longer in control of that photo; he or she gives up ownership as soon as it’s sent. He said that he doesn’t want to scare anyone or make anyone paranoid through the dangers he outlines; he just wants to help them become aware of how serious stalking is.
Sargent will discuss aspects of stalking such as how the crime relates to technology and the different types of stalking — menacing, aggravated menacing and menacing by stalking.
OUPD has seen an increase in the numbers of reported stalking incidents that relate to digital media. The Ohio University Survivor Advocacy Program has seen stalking within the context of sexual assault,, dating and domestic violence.
Today’s generation is used to having the Internet at its fingertips and don’t often take stalking seriously, sometimes even making jokes about the matter, said Delaney Anderson, the program coordinator at OUSAP.
“Part of the brown bag will let it be known that stalking is a serious crime. We kind of make light of stalking now,” she said. “(Like) Facebook stalking, we make jokes about that. We’ll say ‘Oh, I’ll just stalk you on the Internet to learn more about you.’ So we underemphasize the impact of stalking and how dangerous it can be.”
OU’s campus offers resources for anyone who is being stalked. Sargent said the sooner that a person visits OUPD and reports the offense, the quicker they can take care of the dangerous situation. OUSAP supports survivors by providing information about the different options they have and offering them legal and emotional support.
Sarah Jenkins, the program coordinator for the LGBT and Women’s centers, said she hopes the discussion will help let people know OUPD is serious about helping those who are being stalked.
“Just having that support can be invaluable in dealing with something like that,” Jenkins said.
@annachristine38
ag836912@ohio.edu
