Department of Public Safety Chief Larry Rickard addressed the Marquette Student Government last Thursday, announcing that over the past two years, personal crime has been reduced by 50 to 60 percent, and calling it a “phenomenal year” for the campus in terms of crime prevention.

Personal crime is defined as a violent crime committed against a person, including armed robbery and strong-armed robbery, Rickard said.

He said students “should start to see a reduction of panhandling” around campus in upcoming weeks. He said recently it has come to his attention that some panhandlers have been very aggressive pursuing pedestrians’ loose change.

Following an incident with one repeat offender, DPS found that some of the homeless people around campus suffer from “chronic inebriation,” and they will coerce a passerby to give them two or three dollars to buy liquor, Rickard said.

This cycle continues until the perpetrator becomes “really aggressive,” he said. DPS is looking to prevent such situations by watching out for people with open intoxicants and contacting the Milwaukee Police Department.

Rickard, who has been with DPS for 18 years and chief of the operation for the past 10, said the number one priority of DPS officers is to keep students out of harm’s way.

He said it is important that students be immediately alerted of threats around campus, and recommended that each person sign up to receive text message alerts.

Rickard said there are currently about 10,000 students signed up to receive the alerts, which will only be given under “really good” (snow day) or “really bad” (active shooter) circumstances.

DPS also runs the LIMO transport services, and Rickard announced that LIMOs have taxied nearly 6.5 million students since they began running in 1986. In 2009, 216,496 students used a LIMO, according to Rickard.

Rickard also said DPS is looking into installing a GPS system that may be able to show where specific LIMOs are on a map at a given time for the convenience of students looking to catch a LIMO on the fly.

“We’re researching, talking to all the tech-y folks and working on that. We’re seeing if the technology is there,” Rickard said.

Following Rickard’s presentation, business ran as usual for MUSG, with the senate receiving a list of all organizations that requested allocations and approving three Student Organization allocations for events occurring between Nov. 1 and May 7, 2011.

The senate must approve allocations that are greater than $2,500.

Among the allocations, WMUR Marquette Radio was allocated $4,280.28 to collaborate with MUTV in covering the Big East Tournament in New York City in March.

The largest allocation, which had to be approved by the senate, was given to the Global Medical Brigades, which was allocated $6,000 to supplement the $51,899 the organization raised itself. This is part of a trip to Honduras over Christmas break where students will work alongside medical professionals to help deliver important medical relief.

In total, $20,574.32 was allocated to 15 different events. $17,573.32 was allocated to off-campus events, while $3,001 was allocated to on-campus events.

Executive Vice President Joseph Ciccone, a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences, said that although a survey from 2007 stated that 94.9 percent of students said they would like to see funds allocated to on-campus events, there were not many on-campus requests.

Monday, Ciccone said MUSG is currently looking into running a new survey on the topic.