Students unhappy after peeping cases

Two IU students who have reported a rash of peeping tom incidents are upset their landlord won't let them out of their lease after police advised they leave their off-campus apartment.\nJuniors Jami Bennett and Maria Long are living at Lincoln Hill Apartments, 544 S. Lincoln Ave. The two said they have reported a "peeping tom" outside of their living room window seven times since last September.\nBennett said she was really scared for her personal safety. The Bloomington Police Department advised she move out of the apartment complex after the repeated incidents.\nBut Bennett said Grant Properties, which owns Lincoln Hill, has not been cooperative to ensure tenant safety.\nBennett said she tried repeatedly to move out of the complex, but Grant Properties wouldn't let her out of the lease unless she paid $5,000.\n"I felt like that's how much my life was worth -- $5,000," Bennett said.\nRecently Grant Properties installed vertical blinds in only Bennett and Long's apartment. They also paid for an advertisement to help Bennett and Long find a subleaser to get out of the apartment.\nBut the outdoor lighting, which Bennett said she requested in July, wasn't installed until Sept. 19.\nGrant Properties did not return phone calls to the IDS.\nThe property managers are not required to take any measures for safety in this case, according to Ft. Wayne attorney Marc Lansky, who ran his own property management business in the mid-90s.\n"The landlord isn't criminally responsible. The real question is civil liability," Lansky said. "The landlord would be responsible if he'd been warned and didn't take measures to ensure the problem would be solved. A peeping tom isn't really serious enough for a civil suit. But something more serious like a rape or assault would make him liable." \nLansky said Grant Properties isn't responsible for something like a peeper since the amount of damage caused is relatively low.\n"The landlord isn't legally obligated to do anything," Lansky said. "But can the landlord trim the bushes and put up better lighting? Sure."\nCrime Prevention through Environmental Design is a concept utilizing lighting, landscaping and other similar design factors to prevent crime.\nIU Police Department Sgt. Leslie Slone, a certified CPTED expert, inspected Lincoln Hill Friday morning. She said there are design flaws in the landscaping of the complex, particularly in the outdoor lighting.\nSlone pointed out only two lights on the back of the building where Bennett's apartment is located. She said the lights are placed too high, which would allow someone to only see the top of the peeper's head because of how far away it is from the source of the lights. Ideally, lights should be placed at face level to ensure a good look at someone's face, Slone said.\nSlone also said the complex's entrance areas provide easy access. The fence around the property is waist-high and sagging in some areas. Slone said that calls into question the whole idea of having a fence.\nThe overgrown shrubs and trees around the entire complex don't help either, Slone said. According to the CPTED, no shrubs should be higher than three feet and tree branches should hang no lower than seven feet.\nAll along the back of Bennett's particular building, the branches and shrubs prevent any visibility from off the property.\n"When a building is really obscured by vegetation, it limits the ability of passersby or people living in surrounding houses to call the police if they saw some illegal activity because they can't see onto the property," Slone said.\nBPD Capt. Joe Qualters said the department now conducts an extra patrol of the apartment every hour to track down the peeper. He said it might be very difficult to catch the man because of his unpredictability.