 "Photo: The Inquirer 2009")
Car burglaries at DVC this semester are up nearly 300 percent over what they were in all of 2007, according to campus police services reports.
So far, 15 cars have been broken into and three cars stolen from DVC parking lots-compared to five burglaries and six stolen vehicles in 2007, the latest year for which statistics are available.
The spike in auto break-ins occurred at the same time police aides at DVC took a 50 percent cuts in their working hours, beginning July 1, to help reduce a $283,000 hole in the district’s police services budget.
But Lt. Tom Sharp cautioned against drawing a connection between the increased burglaries and the reduction in police aides patrolling the campus.
“(Auto) burglaries are highly cyclical,” he said.
Sharp said the crime rate is traditionally high at the beginning of the fall semester, because the new wave of entering students. But it subsides after campus police arrested the offenders.
So far, no one has been arrested in conjunction with the auto burglaries, Sharp said.
He conceded student police aides are being stretched thin, even while the demand for police services has stayed constant.
Before the budget cut, three to four police aides were on patrol at any given time. This year, that number is down to one or two, Sharp said.
“People cost money,” he said. “They are the most expensive item in any operational budget. So, unfortunately, they are the first to go.”
The primary duty of student police aides is to patrol DVC’s parking lots, checking cars for parking passes and issuing tickets
Student Jamasyea Williams said he believes the recent burglaries can be attributed to the recession. “People are going through it right now,” he said.
Although students interviewed on a recent afternoon had little knowledge about the reduction in student police aides patrolling the campus, many cited accounts of thefts reported to the DVC police by friends.
Still, they reported feeling safe at school. “I don’t fell in danger at all,” said Gina Rieser. “There is a risk of theft, but besides that, I don’t feel at risk of getting harmed.”
Sharp emphasized that car thefts and burglaries are “crimes of opportunities”, advising drivers to keep items in their cars out of view and to keep their doors locked.
Daniel Robinson said he is being more cautious after a friend’s stereo was stolen from his car while parking in the DVC parking lot, “I definitely lock my doors and roll up my windows here,” he said.
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