Part 1 of 2: Crime map shows danger zones
http://coyotechronicle.net/part-1-of-2-crime-map-shows-danger-zones/
By Phil Ruddle |Staff Writer|
How safe do you feel when walking around campus at night?
Do you often get that feeling that someone is following you? Or that the worst imaginable is about about to happen?
If so, are you aware that there have been multiple instances of crime at our campus every single month?
And these are just crimes that were reported.
There is an interesting feature on our campus website that perhaps not all students know about.
There you can find that the campus police have a map of the campus titled Crime Map which designates all of the different crimes that took place throughout the month.
It allows you to look at every single month from April 2013 back to March 2008.
The map contains a key that depicts instances of crime as low as a traffic collision to as high as rape, assault and homicide. It sorts these labels by using different shapes and colors.
In addition, it specifically marks on the campus map where and exactly what crime took place there.
Most recently in this month, April 2013, only four crimes were reported. This is relatively low, but if you navigate back one month, the crime doubles to eight.
These eight crimes entailed two accounts of simple assaults in Serrano Village (SV) and a reported six larcenies spread throughout classrooms.
None of these crimes seem too serious, but in October 2012 a homicide was reported in yet again at Serrano Village.
Right next to SV, a rape was reported in Arrowhead Village housing (AV).
In this same month there were two grand theft autos and three vehicle burglaries in parking lots B, C, and D.
In addition, four larcenies, one burglary and three traffic collisions were also reported in October 2012.
All of these crimes occurred in the same month and shows exactly where on the map.
Does your feelings regarding your safety now change that you have learned this information?
Twenty-year-old student Kaitlyn Randell sounded off on the issue.
Randell said she didn’t even know that the crime map website even existed.
“I thought there was going to be a lot more crime reported on campus, but after I saw that there was a rape incident exactly where I live in University Village I thought twice,” said Randell.
Were you shocked to see the amount of crime that happened on campus?
“Yes and no, traffic collisions is not a surprise because there’s a lot of dumb drivers out here even though I don’t drive. I was mostly surprised at the larceny, especially after looking at this recent month on the crime map,” said Randell.
Randell continued to explain that she will now be checking the website more often because it makes her more aware of what is going on around her in which she will be more cautions in the areas she knows to be more crime hostile.
As you navigate through this map you start to see a pattern, the most hostile crimes all keep occurring in the same areas, such as parking lots and campus housing/apartments in SV and AV.
The most interesting findings on the crime map was back in 2008 where multiple violent crimes were reported in months succession in the same exact area.
It starts in April 2008 where a reported 26 crimes occurred on that month alone. Specifically in the on-campus apartments University Village, seven reports of vehicle burglary were reported.
One month later, May 2008, an aggregated assault and larceny was reported in UV the same area as the vehicle thefts.
Skip to the next month, June 2008, a rape and larceny were reported in the same exact spot yet again.
The following month, July 2008, surprisingly reported zero crime in the whole perimeter of UV.
But in August 2008, two months later since the previous rape, another rape was documented in UV in the same exact area. A simple assault was also reported.
This comes up to the question of what happened during these months because multiple serious violent crimes occurred in the same exact spot in consecutive months.
After viewing the crime map it looks as if crime has died down a lot at our campus since 2008, or at least the crime that has been reported has gone down.
Next week the Chronicle will talk to CSUSB police and detective units to find out more about the most recent and serious crimes reported.
- See more at: http://coyotechronicle.net/part-1-of-2-crime-map-shows-danger-zones/#sthash.kqV2rba2.dpuf
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