No evidence of clowns on Syracuse University campus, DPS says

The Department of Public Safety at Syracuse University found no evidence of clowns on or around campus Monday night, despite rumors circulating around campus and on social media to the contrary.

“Clowns are not a real threat to the community,” said Tony Callisto, senior vice president for safety and chief law enforcement officer at SU, at a press conference Tuesday afternoon. “There have been no signs of criminal activity and literally no actual evidence that there’s any clowns in the area.”

DPS started receiving calls about clown sightings Monday night on Stratford Street, Sumner Avenue and South Campus, but officers did not find a single person in a clown costume after reviewing video surveillance, interviewing witnesses and patrolling the area, Callisto said.

Clown sightings have become prevalent around the country since the end of August, when a report surfaced of a clown trying to lure children into the woods in South Carolina. Since then, there have been clown sightings in at least 10 different states, according to CNN. In most cases, these turned out to be hoaxes, people dressed up in clown costumes to play a prank or false reports.

The clown sightings made their way to upstate New York last week. Several Syracuse children, including a 10-year-old boy who was walking to school in North Syracuse, told police they had been chased by three clowns, according to Syracuse.com. Police have not found the suspects, according to Syracuse.com.

Callisto said the SU clown sightings and the ones reported by Syracuse.com last week were unrelated.

DPS received about 40 calls about the clowns Monday night, Callisto said. Most of those calls were concerned people looking for answers or third party reports. Only a few of the calls were people who said they had seen a clown themselves.

The department investigated an incident where a student called DPS after she heard someone who she thought was a clown trying to open the door to her South Campus apartment, Callisto said. DPS, like the other clown sightings in the area, found no evidence that a clown was in the area.

“They heard clown information from their friends and just connected the two,” Callisto said. “At this point all there is conjecture.”

DPS will take every report of a clown seriously, Callisto said, but he noted that under New York state law, dressing up in a clown costume is not a crime. He added that anyone calling in a clown sighting as a prank will be charged with filing a false report and cautioned students to have a “reasonable response” in how they react to clown sightings.

DPS Clown Response Letter by Jon Mettus on Scribd