Ian McCready stopped for a moment, confused by what had happened. He gripped his keys as he circled the Cal State Long Beach parking lot for a second time. His truck was missing, stolen from right outside the Parkside Commons Residence Halls.
The vehicle turned up a month later in Compton, but it had already been stripped of parts. His truck was one of 86 vehicles that had been stolen from the CSULB campus during 2006 and 2007.
As his first vehicle, the truck wasn’t very expensive, but the incident “still sucked no matter which way you slice it,” said McCready, who was a sophomore at the time and is now a senior.
In October 2007, CSULB and University Police launched a new security system that impacted the entire campus. Nearly 40 cameras were placed strategically around campus and set to record 24 hours a day. It was the first digital camera security system of its size at a California State University campus, according to Greg Pascal, University Police communication supervisor.
CSULB remains one of the few universities in the CSU system that has a security camera system. Others include San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles. Cal State San Bernardino began installing a security camera system in October.
“We always try to pick the best technology to offer the people that come here — faculty, staff, students and visitors — a safe experience within our jurisdiction, ” Pascal said.
Auto thefts dropped 76 percent in 2008 compared to 2005, according to Lt. Scot Willey. However, it is impossible to know if the cameras are fully responsible for the decrease, Willey said via e-mail.
“We hope that it’s a deterrent and that criminals are seeing the signs all over campus,” Willey said. “Bad guys read the newspaper, too.”
Recently, cameras were used to identify and catch an attacker after a sexual assault had occurred on campus in September. The 61-year-old female victim was on her way to class when she was followed into a restroom by the assailant.
The victim was physically unharmed and University Police were able to catch the man with the help of witnesses and dispatchers watching the video cameras. The video of the man following the female student on campus and entering the restroom will be used as evidence in court, Willey said.
University Police has also used cameras to recover stolen bikes and track vandalism. Housing and Residential Life has two cameras, not connected with the system monitored by University Police, used to monitor the dormitory coffee shops.
“There may be a smaller minority that feels that the cameras are intrusive, while the greater majority feels safer,” said Carol Roberts-Corb, director of Housing and Residential Life.
Roberts-Corb is new on campus this year but is appreciative of the security system because she has had her car stolen in the past, she said.
“It’s an awful feeling when you walk out there and your car isn’t there,” she said. “It’s a violation, and it’s just weird thinking of someone else sitting in your vehicle.”
However, with increased security comes increased concern over privacy. More than one student has worried about “Big Brother” watching since the cameras have gone up, Willey said.
The security cameras are mostly stationed in parking lots and those nearby the dormitories are unable to view inside the residences. The computer monitor completely blocks out windows and doorways of the dorms and permanently records the video with that information obscured.
Even if an extreme case, such as after a homicide, were to occur where investigators wanted to look inside a residence, there is no way for the system to enable to cameras to look into the windows, Pascal said.
Even so, the areas around some of the dormitories remain visible and cameras can record students coming and going at all hours of the day. Some students have questioned if University Police is overreacting to what may be caught on the cameras.
Kris McConkie and a small number of other students stood between Parkside Commons buildings last year smoking cigarettes when police came by to investigate the activity.
Two officers got out of their patrol car and one examined McConkie’s cigarette before leaving without incident, he recalled.
“They never told us that they received a complaint, so I can only assume that means [the police] saw us on the cameras,” McConkie said.
Students have expressed their doubts that police can accurately tell the difference between a cigarette and a joint through the cameras, especially in low light or from a distance, but Willey disagreed.
“People smoking a cigarette, you hold that differently that you would if you were smoking marijuana or crack,” he said. “We’ve been around the block a few times, so we know what’s going on.”
In the majority of cases, officers are sent out after a dispatcher has received a complaint from a student or faculty member on campus. The department depends on tips from the CSULB community for much of its incoming information, Willey said.
“I really doubt any student is going to call the cops because they think their fellow student might possibly be smoking weed,” McConkie said. “I still think it’s the cops eyeing the cameras.”
The cameras are always recording and most hours of the day a dispatcher eyes the monitors. If a student gets caught doing anything illegal on camera by a dispatcher, and there is the strong possibility that police will investigate, Willey said.
“If students are walking in with alcohol and it’s clear, then that would be reason to send an officer. It’s a violation of campus policies and it’s against the law if they’re underage,” Willey said.
However, the act of carrying in alcohol would also have to be something as obvious as several students trying to maneuver a beer keg into a dormitory before it would warrant officer response, Pascal said.
An incident that endangers public safety such as a student seen with a weapon would bring immediate law enforcement response, Willey said.
Officers were dispatched recently when a student was viewed on camera with what appeared to be a gun in his hand. The weapon turned out to be an airsoft gun, which looks just like a real gun and virtually impossible to identify over the camera monitors, Willey said.
While the cameras are not monitored by a dispatcher at all hours of the day, Pascal said the department tries to have someone there as often as possible to respond to suspicious activity caught by the cameras.
Pascal said, “We try to get whatever technology is out there that is going to help us do our job better to protect people in a more effective manner; we take our responsibility very seriously.”