By Mindi Funderburg
UHCLIDIAN STAFF

A UH-Clear Lake professor has been attracting a lot of media attention lately.

Steven Egger, associate professor of criminology, has been lending his knowledge about serial killers in the wake of the recent sniper shootings in the Washington, D.C. area.

Egger has appeared on MSNBC's "Nachman," CNBC with Brian Williams and many other news and radio programs commenting on the behavior of the sniper.

With all of his high profile appearances, Egger says he is still a teacher at heart.

Egger says he became an expert on serial murder quite naturally.

While working as a police officer in Ann Arbor, Mich., he was assigned to a serial murder case. After solving the case, he became a homicide investigator, working for the police department for two years.

While teaching at a community college in Maryland he wrote two books on the subject-"Serial Murder: An Elusive Phenomenon" and "The Killers Among Us: An Examination of Serial Murder and Its Investigation."

"I just feel that police can do a better job investigating serial murder," Egger said.

Egger has coined a phrase to explain how different police departments often do not work together to solve murder cases: linkage blindness.

"It refers to the fact that police don't share information or don't do a very good job of sharing information across jurisdiction lines on unsolved cases," Egger said. "We've got to do a better job of cooperating and sharing information."

This is something he thinks the police in the sniper case are falling victim to.

"They are cooperating," Egger said. "The extent to which they are coordinating their activities is another question. I don't know who is coordinating a task force and the interesting thing is, as far as I know, the press hasn't really asked the police who is coordinating the task force."

With his experience and his extensive research, Egger has become a sought after expert on the sniper shootings and the activities of the FBI and Washington, D.C. area police.

"He definitely answers a need to a growing concern because of the Maryland shootings," said Karen Barbier, coordinator of media relations. "It's wonderful when we can speak to the media with some expertise about this topic, which he has."

Egger's high visibility has meant a lot of publicity for UH-Clear Lake.

"He has a lot of experience in the field and I'm really glad that we have someone we can recommend about this topic at this time," Barbier said.

This attention and having a nationally recognized instructor only benefit students, said Bruce Palmer, dean of the School of Human Sciences and Humanities.

"For students it's exciting and it makes the program attractive," Palmer said. "It probably means that it will attract better students from other places. That helps the students directly because the better the student population in the classroom, the better education you're going to get."

Egger certainly brings experience to the university. He taught for six years at a community college in Maryland and 15 years at the University of Illinois-Springfield before coming to UH-Clear Lake in the summer of 2002.

"I enjoy teaching," Egger said. "I just get a thrill out of students. I've always enjoyed teaching. My mother was a first grade and kindergarten teacher and I just fell into it. After I got my master's degree, I wound up teaching at a community college and enjoyed it."

He received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Michigan State University then went on to earn a doctorate in criminal justice from Sam Houston State University, where he completed the world's first dissertation on serial murder.

Egger will teach a special topics class on serial murder at UH-Clear Lake in spring 2003.

"Because he is a recognizable expert, you know you're getting top-of-the-line information," Palmer said. "It also means that there's a real good chance that you'll get good stuff in that course and I'm sure you will because he's good at what he does."

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