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Thursday, March 20, 2014

Part 2 of a Special 2 part series: Campus Police speak out about danger zones

http://coyotechronicle.net/part-2-of-a-special-2-part-series-campus-police-speak-out-about-danger-zones/

By Phil Ruddle |Staff Writer|

Last week the Chronicle published a feature on the campus website that most people didn’t even know existed.

If you missed it, you can find part one at coyotechronicle.net

In last week’s issue, we learned about the crime map which let students visit their campus website and view what crimes occurred on campus and where.

In addition, the crime map gives you access to reported crimes on campus from the most recent month all the way back to 2008.

The Chronicle found an noteworthy pattern of crimes last week in part one where multiple crimes were reported in month’s succession in the same exact area at University Village.

After speaking to campus officials the Chronicle discovered these patterns to be a coincidence, but still a problem to the police in which they have taken steps to resolve.

I sat down with LT. Duncan who has been working at CSUSB since April 2004 and Detective Herrington for more accurate answers.

I asked about the seven vehicle burglaries in UV during the months of April-August 2008.

“We can’t go into much detail about most of these crimes, but in that particular instance, a male admitted to four of those seven vehicle burglaries and he was not a student here,” explained Herrington.

Herrington also spoke about the aggravated assault and rapes that happened in the months of May, June and August 2008.

“The aggravated assault was a domestic dispute between a boyfriend and girlfriend. The male was student here, but not the female. The rape incidents were just typical party drunken nights,” added Herrington.

Duncan explains that 99 percent of rapes that happen on campus are the typical date rape where everyone is intoxicated.

“Rape is a much broader term then most think and there has been only one account of a rape on campus that had to do with force or fear,” said Duncan.

Duncan continued to explain that there hasn’t been a report of the same person being raped more than once or a repeated rape offender.

Majority of thefts, rape or anything of the sort is usually accountable by the friends or the people that the students invite into their home originally.

The different crimes on the crime map are just crimes that were reported.

The police investigate each crime that is reported, but it could end up being absolutely nothing where no charges are pressed.

Herrington explains that in 2012 about five rapes were reported.

The reported crimes still stay on the crime map whether they end up being crimes or not.

The reason they stay on the map is because campus police are required by State law in the Clery Act to do so.

Campus police have the ability to report or investigate crimes, but not to remove reported crimes.

“We recognize that we had a lot of crimes in campus housing, apartments and parking around them, so we implemented a sub police station in Serrano Village that is manned with a sergeant police officer whose primary duty is to patrol housing,” explained Duncan.

In addition, the sub unit police station has their own community device, which are student officers who patrol housing.

This is not 24/7 because they are college students, but police are always on campus with 24/7 surveillance.

An officer is always patrolling around housing. They even have random patrol coordinates so potential criminals cannot track or memorize police patrols sweeps.

Duncan created the crime map after getting the idea from San Francisco State University.

There is no denying that San Bernardino can be a dangerous city.

But our campus police have stepped up and have somehow been able to decrease crime around campus.

The crime map doesn’t lie, check it out and you will see how much crime has gone down at CSUSB from 2008 to now.

But, campus police is doing their best to keep us safe.

Here’s something that may comfort you as Duncan explains, “In 2012, CSUSB was dubbed the second safest campus of a four year university in the state of California that includes public and private universities with number one being Cal State San Marcos.”

Absolutely anybody can report a crime at CSUSB, and that is how campus police is able to keep us safe, so if you witness anything you should report it at our campus tip line.

The tipline is maintained by the University Police Department that allows callers wishing to remain anonymous to leave information concerning crimes, drugs or suspicious activity on campus.

The tipline is (909) 537-7786 and their email is reportcrime@csusb.edu

If this has made you more uneasy about crime on campus, note that Duncan and campus police have taken steps to keep CSUSB one of the safest universities in California.

- See more at: http://coyotechronicle.net/part-2-of-a-special-2-part-series-campus-police-speak-out-about-danger-zones/#sthash.12dncviB.dpuf

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