Maybe it’s not quite to the scale of Grand Theft Auto, but according to the Jeanne Clery Annual Security Report, car theft seems to be CSULB’s most pressing issue.
The federally mandated report was recently released and the university mostly lacked any major standouts in each of the varying categories of crime.
The report requires all colleges and universities, public and private, to detail any crimes that were committed either on campus, on non-campus affiliated property or on public property within campus lines.
Although non-campus property is included in the report, it is outside of the University Police Department’s jurisdiction.
In 2022, CSULB reported under five accounts in nearly every crime category. For the major crimes, there were no reports of manslaughter, one account of rape, one account of robbery and five arrests for weapons law violations.
However, one crime statistic noticeably stood out from the others: motor vehicle theft. In 2022 there were 15 reports of car theft on campus, with another one occurring on non-campus property and two more on public property.
Those numbers were significantly higher than the numbers reported in 2021 and 2020.
“Looking at it, it’s hard to say why,” said John Brockie, Chief of the University Police Department (UPD). “As different [car] models come out, we see different trends.”
Brockie mentioned that the current trend highlights Kia as the car brand most susceptible to theft.
This is because models from 2011-2022 lack an engine immobilizer, which prevents the car from starting without the presence of a key.
Bike theft is also a major issue at the university, but because bike theft statistics are not required in the report, those numbers were left out. However, UPD is all but too aware of the situation.
“We’ve identified that bike thefts are an issue here, and so we looked at ‘how do we combat that?'” Brockie said.
Brockie pointed out that the vulnerability of cable bike locks combined with the fact that most bikes are not registered with the UPD resulted in the initiation of the U-Lock program.
The program incentivizes students to register their bikes with the UPD with a bike U-lock, which is much harder to break.
Also included in the security report is a list of policies and programs. Any policy or program the university may employ to help promote campus safety must be included and explained.
CSULB offers a myriad of programs on topics such as crime prevention, sexual assault prevention as well as equity and diversity promotion.
In light of a suicide committed on campus in Nov. 2022, one new policy that has truly made a difference, but was not included in the report, is the addition of signs throughout campus with the phone numbers of the suicide hotline and a separate hotline that goes to campus resources.
“We look to our community to assist us,” Brockie said.
He said that since those signs have been posted, two lives have been saved from committing suicide.
The UPD’s efforts to keep CSULB safe have not gone unnoticed.
“I feel pretty safe on campus,” Weibo Zhang, a second-year computer science major, said. “I used to leave campus around 7 p.m. – 8 p.m., and it would be pretty dark, but even then I felt safe.”
While theft seems to be the university’s only pertinent issue, Brockie pointed out that theft only entails stealing unattended items as opposed to robbery, which includes the use of fear or intimidation. With proper care, the number of thefts would decrease, leading to an even safer CSULB.
“Really, just protecting their items, that would be my recommendation,” Brockie said.