The News-Gazette reported that according to the Tuscola chief of police, one of the biggest challenges facing firefighters is knowing what to do when fire strikes a home containing pets. Tuscola, for those of you who don’t wander farther than a five-mile radius from campus, is a town just slightly to the south of Champaign.

In a way, it is reassuring that knowing how to give mouth-to-mouth to a puggle is one of the biggest issues facing the local firemen. I just wish the local police departments were in a similar situation; able, perhaps, to busy their minds with concerns like “What if the greyhound resists arrest and tries to flee?” instead of having to solve an abundance of sexual assaults, murder and other generally unpleasant crimes.

Kenneth Kelly recently made his way back from Tennessee in the back of a police car to stand trial for the murder of a couple that happened two Independence Days ago. The double homicide occurred a comfortable distance away; somewhere near the armpit of Kirby and Mattis avenues.

With more than 1,000 man-hours invested in investigating the case, Champaign police officers have been quite busy. It’s a wonder that they’ve had any time at all to look into the two attempted rapes that happened on campus a few weeks back.

While many of the students at the University have probably never ventured far enough west to stumble upon Mattis Avenue, nearly everyone, freshmen included, has walked past Altgeld Hall.

Altgeld is a testament to its creator who oversaw the first American graduating class of architects, but it is also the site of one of the two attempted sexual assaults that occurred nigh on a fortnight back.

The intersection of Third and Daniel streets also played host to another attempted sexual assault that night. These hit close to home for most of the student body, and it would be nice to think that the police officers were fully dedicated to getting to the bottom of it except that would mean that they weren’t also focused on catching a man accused of beating, raping and robbing an acquaintance of his on Nov. 6.

While we are on the topic, let’s not forget the other incidents that the police department has to concern itself with such as the late-night muggings from last year, the rash of property destruction and theft surrounding local Jeeps, and a smattering of broken windows and windshields. Oh, and the theft of a camera from the Delta Zeta house this past Sunday.

These stories abound, it seems, and the police officers are doing what they can.

As in the case of my stolen bike, that often times turns out to be nothing.

By no stretch of the imagination am I trying to insinuate that the police departments are not doing their job to the best of their ability. I applaud their hard work and effort, and hope that they keep up the good work.

I am merely trying to sympathize with them and let them know that I would prefer that they not know how to handle a kitty involved in a domestic dispute if that means that they are able to dedicate their time fully to stopping, or at least figuring out, the abundance of crime that happens.

I know that for everything we hear about in the papers, there are plenty of other things that we don’t hear about. Last year, I had the opportunity to work with the wife of a security guard at one of the local hospitals where, among others, victims of violent crimes go to get treated.

It was from the stories the guard relayed that I got a picture of what really goes on.

Unsubstantiated, but most likely true, stories of local gang violence, shootings at frat houses and other things that have allegedly happened in this area over the last decade only helped to reaffirm my faith in the men and women in blue.

I know that they are out there looking for the people who have committed crimes, trying to prevent other crimes from happening and doing what they can not to make this place seem less unsafe.

It is simply our good fortune, and that of the pets of Tuscola, that arson is one of the few crimes that don’t seem to be a big deal in these parts.