Police ask students for help reporting suspicious people

Campus police are asking for students’ help.

OCU Police encourage students to be wary and report any suspicious or unknown people seen on campus, Chief Bradd Brown said Monday.

“It’s a small community and it is usually pretty easy to tell who doesn’t belong,” Brown said. “We rely on people’s eyes and ears to be on the look out and inform us of anything suspicious.”

The request comes after a woman unaffiliated with campus was arrested last week after being found in Cokesbury Court Apartments.

Jenifer Smith was arrested at 9:30 p.m. Sept. 28 on complaints of trespassing after campus police found her doing laundry in the Cokesbury Court laundry room, according to a campus police report.

Smith already was asked to leave campus at 1 p.m. the same day when she was found sleeping in the Cokesbury Court Clubhouse, according to the report.

Smith confronted a student while in the laundry room.

A video of the incident was shared Sept. 29 on Facebook. It lasts more than six minutes, but does not capture the entire incident. The video had almost 178,000 views and nearly 2,500 shares at presstime.

Capriana Campo, music theater sophomore, was with the other student at the time of the incident. She made the video, which captures the woman calling the acting sophomore obscene names and claiming she’s showing “too much skin.”

The student was wearing black shorts and a tank top while her laundry was in the dryer.

Smith is shown in the video asking the student if she “works a pole” and encouraging her to “go to Vegas and be a stripper.”

Campo said she originally wondered if she should post the video, but she’s glad she did.

“I think it shows a good message,” she said. “That woman pointed out that women only have one purpose in the world and that is passing on children, which obviously we are more than that.

“And she brought up clothing, showing skin and the whole rape culture that we need to cover up for men when really schools should be teaching everyone that those acts are wrong.”

The student victim said she has struggled with self-doubt since the incident.

“It makes you think of yourself in a negative way,” she said. “Regardless of how ridiculous what she was saying was, I still went home and thought about ‘what’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with my body?’ You know, you always have those lingering thoughts and that’s something you just can’t get out of your head after you’ve been harassed that way.”

The students called police after the incident, but were told another student already called and Smith was arrested. Neither student involved has heard from campus police since the incident.

All students, faculty and staff are required to carry identification cards and present them to any university official upon request, according to campus police procedures.

Police also check vehicles for permits and make sure no unaffiliated person is on campus. If they see a vehicle without a permit, they look into it. If they see someone who is not supposed to be on campus, they handle the situation immediately with a notice to vacate, Brown said. If the person returns, he or she may be arrested.

“If students see someone that isn’t supposed to be here, they should report it to police immediately, even if they’re not sure,” Brown said.

Students may call OCUPD at their non-emergency number at 405-208-5001 or call 405-208-5911 for emergencies.