Schooled in Safety

Ryan Pearson, a USC freshman from Iowa, said his parents had some qualms about sending him to a campus in Los Angeles’ urban core, just south of downtown.

“They told me to look for ways that [campus officials] make it safe,” said Pearson, who has adopted a heads-up approach to personal safety:

“I knew that coming to USC would mean being careful, being aware of your situation all the time, looking over your shoulder.”

Across town, on UCLA’s campus in suburban Westwood, freshman Adam Yang displayed no such caution.

“It’s so safe here. I don’t worry about anything,” Yang said.

In fact, both campuses are relatively safe, especially when it comes to violent crime. Murders are rare, and incidents of assault with a deadly weapon and robbery have declined in recent years, along with most other categories of violent crime. Rape cases have ranged from three to 10 annually during the last five years at 28,000-student USC and from one to seven at UCLA, whose enrollment approaches 34,000.

Yet students on both campuses--or probably any campus--would do well to follow Pearson’s lead--especially if they want to hang onto their laptop computers, cell phones, bicycles, backpacks and other possessions.

According to university safety officials, theft is the No. 1 crime. There were 1,155 incidents of theft (not counting car thefts) reported at UCLA last year and 1,101 at USC.

“Students have more valuables with them now,” said Nancy Greenstein, public information officer for the UCLA Police Department. “Ten years ago no one had a laptop computer.”

Like many of their counterparts in cities across the country, both universities have their own police departments to patrol their campuses and adjoining areas. Both work closely with the Los Angeles Police Department.

USC has 41 armed and 61 unarmed officers in its police department while UCLA has 58 armed officers. Each university also has approximately 100 unarmed student officers.

At a time when crime rates generally are dipping, the university departments spend a lot of time on prevention--and in battling false perceptions of danger.

“We have had an image of being a dangerous university in a dangerous city, but that stereotype is not accurate if you look at it fairly,” said Steven Ward, chief of USC’s Department of Public Safety.

“The issue of high crime risk is not accurate. This is not a dangerous neighborhood,” Ward said.

Importance of Perceptions

Perceptions about crime on and around USC’s campus, long a concern for parents of prospective students, have become increasingly important as civic leaders step up efforts to revitalize the low-income communities surrounding the campus and the historic museums and sports facilities in adjacent Exposition Park. Safety issues loom especially large in the drive to bring a National Football League team back to the Coliseum.

Even UCLA, surrounded by expensive residential neighborhoods, a sprawling veterans cemetery and the restaurants and movie theaters of Westwood Village, has battled community safety fears from time to time. In the 1980s, a gang member’s errant bullet killed a bystander in Westwood Village. Earlier this year, reports of attacks by the so-called Westside Rapist stirred concerns both on and off campus.

USC’s improving safety picture is the result of several aggressive programs, ranging from community outreach projects to construction of a once-controversial fence around the campus and installation of better lighting. A close relationship with the LAPD--including a written agreement dating from 1984--and policies fostering disclosure, education and crime prevention also are important elements.

During the last decade, Congress has tightened crime reporting requirements for universities receiving federal funds, and the U.S. Department of Education is formulating new guidelines aimed at better, more complete reporting.

California last year passed legislation requiring written jurisdictional agreements between campus and municipal police departments to foster more efficient relationships. The 1996 disappearance of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo student Kristen Smart sparked the new law. Campus police waited a month before turning the case over to the county sheriff; Smart is still missing.

LAPD officials said they have enjoyed strong, positive relationships with both the USC and UCLA police departments.

Although UCLA and the LAPD have not yet finalized the agreement required by the recent state law, the two departments long have worked together on several projects, including foot patrols in Westwood Village, where they also share a substation.

“I think we’re very fortunate in Los Angeles, in that we have had strong relationships with both [universities] that go back for years,” said Cmdr. David Kalish, the LAPD’s chief spokesman.

Both universities, Kalish added, “have been diligent in their efforts to work closely with the LAPD, in terms of coordinating, forming partnerships, sharing information and liaisoning. . . . Things work very well.”

Kalish noted that several police officials at both campuses come from the LAPD or other local departments. USC’s assistant chief, Bob Taylor, is a former LAPD officer and UCLA Police Chief Clarence Chapman is a veteran of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Because armed university police officers also work in city-patrolled neighborhoods adjacent to the campuses, they provide extra “eyes and ears” for those city streets.

At USC, armed officers are required to be trained to the same standards as officers with the LAPD. The others, called community service officers, are trained in-house and work in dorms and monitor parking areas.

Armed officers at USC have the same arrest authority as city police officers, although they must report any homicides, shots-fired incidents, gunshot wounds, sexual assaults, bomb threats, hate crimes, suicides, city liability issues, hazardous material spills or contamination, theft of more than $5,000 and similar incidents to the LAPD’s Southwest Division watch commander.

“On any sex crime, we call them immediately, same with felonies. All misdemeanors we handle ourselves,” Ward said.

“Our role isn’t to be a police department and duplicate what LAPD does. We are part of the university, we work with students, and we can teach the students to use the resources of a city and crime prevention.”

Publication of Crime Reports

A few years ago, the USC student newspaper started publishing reports on crime on campus and in adjoining areas, using information supplied by Ward’s department. The feature in the Daily Trojan, dubbed Roundup, was an instant hit with students. But administrators were leery at first, recalled Mona Cravens, director of student publications.

USC now encourages disclosure, said Ward, who blames parents’ fears for a temporary drop in admissions shortly after the 1992 riots.

The Daily Trojan feature “corrects a lot of misconceptions,” Cravens said. “If you read everything that goes on, you have a much better perspective than just highlighting the horrific things that happen once in a while.”

The Roundup includes crimes reported on or around campus and can range from disorderly student conduct to a stolen beer from an off-campus market to the masked robbery of a campus parking gate.

UCLA’s Daily Bruin newspaper also runs crime statistics on a weekly basis, but with much less fanfare. A recent report contained three lost or stolen cars, six stolen bicycles, four car break-ins and one fight at a hamburger stand. Security staff at UCLA consists of both armed, highly trained officers and unarmed campus safety officers, most of whom are students.

The university “is not a 24-hour-operating municipality,” which helps keep crime down, said UCLA Chief Chapman. “After 11 o’clock at night, there are not the kinds of activity you’d have on city streets.”

“The biggest problem with people here,” said UCLA Assistant Chief Karl Ross, “is that they think the rules of L.A. are suspended on campus. Criminals are opportunists. They’ll take advantage” of complacency.

Campus officials credit stepped-up patrols and a student awareness programs for a recent drop in whopping numbers of bicycle and auto thefts.

Longtime USC administrator Paul Hadley, who was a student there in the 1930s, has seen many changes at USC over the years and recalls when campus crime began to be of concern in the late 1960s and 1970s.

“Crime went up for a period, and now it’s down,” Hadley said, crediting university efforts to build a good relationship with the surrounding community through tutoring, scholarships and other programs.

Hadley said he has never felt unsafe on campus, noting that his daughter, who graduated in 1973, “saw only one incident of violence in her time here.”

Focus on Prevention

As campus crime rates continue their slide, safety officials at both universities are concentrating on education and prevention programs.

“The undergraduate population is a pretty trusting population,” said USC’s Ward. “We want them to become skeptical and not cynical.”

Several students at both campuses said they feel safe--at least while on campus or in their dorms--but they also display the kind of caution that safety officials are encouraging.

“I’ve always felt safe, really,” said Elisa Ung, former editor of the Daily Trojan. But she said she learned to be cautious after several of her friends were robbed north of campus near university-owned residences.

“My friends who were mugged were walking alone at night, which [campus officials] repeatedly tell you not to do,” Ung said. “Stuff happens in the area, and you just have to be cautious.”

“I feel safe here,” said Eloy Perez, a second-year engineering student at UCLA. “But [crime] does cross your mind. You have to think about it.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Controlling Campus Crime Campus crime: UCLA and USC have their own police departments to patrol their campuses and preserve safety and security. The departments spend a lot of time on crime prevention and in battling false perceptions of danger.

USC

Student enrollment: approx.: 28,000

Total student, staff and faculty: 45,000

Full-time armed police officers: 41

Unarmed officers (CSOs): 61

Unarmed student officers: 126

Size of Campus: 154 acres

Student escort requests: for 1998, 84,570

Number of parking spaces: 9,600

UCLA

Student enrollment: 33,978

Total student, staff and faculty: 50,765

Full-time armed police officers: 58

Unarmed student officers: 100

Size of campus: 419 acres

Student escort requests: for 1998, 16,200

Number of parking spaces: 22,740

CRIMES

Murder

UCLA

1994: 0

1995: 0

1996: 1

1997: 0

1998: 0

USC

1994: 0

1995: 0

1996: 0

1997: 2

1998: 0

*

Rape UCLA

1994: 1

1995: 7

1996: 4

1997: 4

1998: 4

USC

1994: 8

1995: 8

1996: 5

1997: 3

1998: 10

*

Assault with a deadly weapon

UCLA

1994: 41

1995: 15

1996: 14

1997: 28

1998: 29

USC

1994: 13

1995: 13

1996: 7

1997: 10

1998: 4

*

Robbery

UCLA

1994: 13

1995: 13

1996: 14

1997: 16

1998: 7

USC

1994: 39

1995: 40

1996: 29

1997: 16

1998: 19

*

Burglary

UCLA

1994: 772

1995: 610

1996: 482

1997: 257

1998: 249

USC

1994: 180

1995: 236

1996: 162

1997: 138

1998: 94

*

Grand theft auto

UCLA

1994: 131

1995: 131

1996: 126

1997: 110

1998: 50

USC

1994: 67

1995: 89

1996: 62

1997: 71

1998: 57

*

Other theft

UCLA

1994: 721

1995: 876

1996: 839

1997: 998

1998: 1,155

USC

1994: 1,449

1995: 1,334

1996: 1,337

1997: 1,384

1998: 1,101

*

*USC statistics include crimes that occur on or adjacent to university-owned property at the University Park Campus

*UCLA statistics include crimes that occur on campus plus university-related buildings off campus.