University of Kentucky police are increasing their presence after an off-campus shooting at the nearby Raising Canes restaurant on Nov. 3.
They’ll be increasing patrols at UK’s North Campus Friday and Saturday nights from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m, and installing flood lights on Winslow Street.
UK Police Chief Joe Monroe says they’ve seen an uptick in crime on certain parts of campus.
“If you look, the Limestone quarter has been an issue for a lot of activity in the recent 12 to 18 months,” Monroe said. “And so that's one of the reasons we’re really starting to step it up.”
They’ll also be limiting access to certain parking lots and garages at night, including the Cornerstone and Good Samaritan Hospital garages.
“At night it's typically been open to the public, local businesses have been parking in there as well,” Monroe said. “We will be limiting that to those that have permits or coming to events on campus, those type of things.”
Monroe says they’ve also gotten at least one confirmed report of racist spam texts being sent to Black students at UK. The Associated Press reports similar robotexts have been sent to students across the country following Election Day.
“We are cooperating with the other schools in the (Southeastern Conference) as we investigate this, most of these have the same verbiage,” Monroe said. “The numbers are spoofed, which makes it a little bit more difficult to track back."
They’re also working with federal authorities to investigate.
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