COSTA MESA : OCC Boosts Security in Wake of Assaults

Orange Coast College has increased its security, including opening a new safety substation and adding six people to the security staff, in an effort to reduce assaults and other crimes on campus.

The measures come as a result of four reported assaults on women that rocked the campus last semester.

The new station opened Monday, the first day of summer classes, and is in the Adams Avenue parking lot where most of the assaults started or occurred. The security staff also was to start a “walk-around” shift Monday night in which a security officer walks through the middle of the campus, checking inside buildings from 5 to 10:30 p.m.

Patrol hours in the parking lots have also increased.

After the assaults were publicized, the campus formed a “crisis alert team,” including teachers, administrators, students and staff, to respond to crises and help prevent assaults. The group offered suggestions for increasing campus security and lighting.

“There are a number of things that the committee has suggested,” Jim Carnett, college spokesman, said. “One of the first things it wanted to do was to establish this substation.”

The campus will also host an “Awareness Week” when school opens in September that will focus on preventing physical and sexual assaults. Three days have been set aside for lectures and workshops, including a proposed self-defense course taught by a physical education teacher, Carnett said.

He said the assaults changed the campus and the way it handles such emergencies.

In one of the four assaults, Costa Mesa police dropped the investigation after a man turned himself in and the victim refused to press charges.

John Farmer, director of the campus safety department, said he does not know if police have made any arrests in the other incidents. Detectives handling the cases for the Police Department could not be reached Monday.

Now the campus is preparing for possible assaults and planning to educate its students about how to avoid such attacks, Carnett said. Other colleges in California and Arizona have called to ask about the improvements.

“This is a national concern,” Carnett said. “There are no colleges in this country--four-year, two-year, private or public--that have not or will not experience this sort of difficulty. It is, unfortunately, a part of our society.”