MUPD asks community for assistance

Columbia residents are encouraged to help MUPD find suspects.

By Rachel Allred

Published Oct. 16, 2009

The MU Police Department has asked the community to assist it in solving two campus crimes.

A Thursday news release asked community members for their help due to the ongoing nature of the cases and because suspect information is available.

"The cases are not solved at this time, and there are photos that the community can use," MUPD Capt. Brian Weimer said.

The first case is a burglary, which happened Sept. 27 in the Hearnes Center. According to the release, which can be found on MUPD's official Web site, four people stole clothing that belongs to the athletics department. The four suspects, two males and two females, can be seen in a surveillance video.

The second case occurred Sept. 19 near the Maryland Avenue Garage. Two people were assaulted near the southeast corner of the garage, the release stated. MUPD released three photos of the people involved.

Weimer said the police department requests assistance from the community through news releases when there is information that can help people recognize suspects.

"We let them know if we have photos so people can identify them," Weimer said. "We also do it without photos if we have a good description."

Weimer said when a written description of a suspect is released, some people get confused and think the description is too broad.

"Some people think there's all kinds of people like that," Weimer said. "What we're looking for are people who fit the description and were at a certain place at a certain time."

Weimer said news releases requesting community help are not issued every day but the community is expected to help the police department and to look at the news releases on the Web site.

"We ask for assistance daily," Weimer said. "We expect and hope people will report crimes on campus. If people will look at the Web site to help keep the campus safe, we would appreciate it."