|
special
investigation: safety
Police aim to
do better on stats
By Chan Tran
On-line Forty-Niner
Recent systemwide
and campus crime statistics indicate that Cal State Long Beach
is safer than a majority of the campuses in the Cal State
University system, despite some key incidents in the past
few years.
Although complete
crime statistics are not scheduled to be released until October,
University Police has offered a partial crime statistics of
the major crime categories for 2000. The full statistics are
being revised and are not accurate at this time.
Incident reports
for crime statistics are divided into two categories: Part
I offenses and Part II offenses. Part I offenses include rape,
burglary and motor vehicle theft. Part II offenses encompass
all other crimes not included in the Part I category, including
drug abuse and liquor laws.
Part I offenses
have gone down in the area of sexual assaults, but robbery,
auto burglary and theft had increases in the last three years
at CSULB, according to the report.
There were no reported
incidents of forcible rape or attempted rapes in 2000, down
from one incident for each in 1999. Motor vehicle thefts showed
a small increase from 42 incidents in 1999 to 57 in 2000.
The most significant increase has been burglaries on campus
with 98 incidents in 2000, up from 51 incidents in 1999.
"We haven't
had any out of the ordinary jumps in any area," said
Jack Pearson, University Police chief. "The numbers have
been pretty consistent with the increase in enrollment."
The 1999 Annual
Report of Crime Statistics, the most recent system wide crime
report, indicated that CSULB is among the safer campuses in
the CSU system.
CSULB had a total
of 323 Part I offenses, putting the campus in the middle percentages
with other similar size campuses, San Diego State and Cal
State Northridge. For Part II offenses CSULB also falls in
the middle percentages with a total of 327 incidents compared
to SDSU, which had the highest with 812 and Cal State Marcos,
which had the lowest at 20.
In the categories
of rape, robbery and aggravated assault, CSULB falls in the
lower percentages with no incidents of homicide or armed robbery
and one incident of rape and aggravated assault in 1999.
The campus added
five mobile radars in 1999 that were better equipped to read
the speeds of moving vehicles. This allowed the police to
cite more traffic misdemeanors. Prior to that, University
Police had only one hand-held radar. Also, in that same year
the department upgraded its computer records system from the
Computerated Assisted Dispatchment System (ARMS) to the more
modern VisionCAD/RMS.
"The philosophy
of the campus is to remain proactive to look at how
we can improve upon what already works," said Capt. Stan
Skipworth of University Police.
One of the changes
involves the Jeanne Clery Act, a federal law that requires
campuses to collect crime data. The act was recently amended,
requiring campus facilities other than the police department
to report any incidents of sexual offense. These facilities
include the Women's Resource Center, Student Health Services
and student housing.
The efforts are
also the result of a U.S. Department of Education investigation
of the CSU system for underreporting sexual assault crimes
brought forth by the Sacramento Bee. The Bee's investigation
uncovered that many UC campuses crime statistics included
only cases that were reported to police and not other campus
facilities. This made the statistics for Part I offenses,
such as rape and sexual assaults lower on some campuses.
Complaints also
came from CSU campuses, including Cal State Sacramento, Cal
State Chico and Cal State Fullerton. As a result, the department
launched a separate review of the 23 CSU campuses based on
the individual complaints.
CSULB has been
looked over and has passed the investigation within the last
five months, according to University Police officials.
"The [Education
Department] did not find a need to come to our campus for
more investigation," Skipworth said.
Such changes come
in the aftermath of two major incidents in the past few years;
a rape and one daytime attempted abduction.
The most recent
publicized instance of rape occurred on March 20, 2000 in
the Parkside Commons dormitories.
In the incident
the female victim, suspects and friends had been drinking
and socializing. The victim was pulled into a dorm room where
a suspect raped her, after which more suspects began to rape
her as each watches the other, according to the incident report.
The rape was not
made public until March 29, when the On-line Forty-Niner published
the story, "Reported rape evokes fear."
But some students
were not happy with the coverage and the amount of information
available.
"I was disturbed
by the articles … and the questions posed to students on campus
about what they thought of the reported rape," a female
CSULB student wrote in a letter published in the On-line Forty-Niner
April 5. "How can you expect them to respond when the
information they were given was limited?"
Pearson said there
are reasons why the majority of the information about the
rape was not known until two weeks later.
"The Federal
Register states that we have 72 hours to post it in our activity
log, unless releasing the information will somehow jeopardize
the information," Pearson said. "With that incident,
we did release the information within that time limit. However,
we did not know if the incident was a rape and specifics could
not be given out without the victim and witnesses being threatened."
The attempted abduction
occurred on Sept. 25, 2000, when two male suspects allegedly
attempted to abduct a woman near Lot 4. The victim was able
to break free and notified campus police. It was the first
incident of its kind in campus history, according to University
Police.
In the weeks following
the incident, the campus criticized the University Police
for not posting enough information and warnings around campus.
The case remains unsolved seven months later.
"No additional
information has come to us," Pearson said. "We've
reached a dead end on that one. It's still an open case."
High on the list
of priorities for CSULB and other campuses in the CSU system
is the demand of officers needed due increases in enrollment.
There are no CSU system guidelines for how many officers are
required for the amount of students at each campus, according
to CSU officials.
CSULB's enrollment
for spring 2001 has reached 33,000 students and University
Police has added three full-time officers to the force within
the past year. The department currently has 33 full-time officers
but only 26 have been sworn in. There are also 45 part-time
officers.
Information on
the escort services continues to be posted around campus and
University Police is making a strong effort to give all incoming
freshmen a presentation on campus safety.
"I wish we
could predict what will happen," Skipworth said. "The
reality is that you experience changes and we're just trying
to keep things in place."
|
