2008 Woodie Awards
LBCC crime rises in first half of 2008
Steven Piper
Issue date: 6/16/08 Section: News
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Areas experiencing a decrease in occurrence are other sex crimes, assault with a deadly weapon, assault and battery, petty theft, grand theft, motor vehicle theft, commercial burglary, auto burglary, disturbance, vandalism, alcohol, drugs and stalking.
Categories with no change so far are homicide, rape, robbery, domestic violence, arson, and weapons.
Tallying the most incidents are crimes designated as "other reported incidents." In 2007, the LAC reported 187 "other" incidents while the PCC had 71. In 2008, the LAC has 100 "other" incidents so far while the PCC has 20. When taking the incidents accounted for through the months of January to May, the LAC and PCC have experienced a 3 percent increase in "other" crimes.
According to the LBCC campus police report, "other reported incidents" may be considered lost or stolen property, receiving lost or stolen property, found property, hit-and-run accident or other vehicle accident, annoying e-mails or telephone calls, misuse of handicapped placard, miscellaneous and stored vehicle.
Trespassing is the crime with greatest percent increase with a 50 percent change from 2007 to 2008. In 2007, two trespassing incidents were reported while 2008 totaled three trespassings so far.
The category of crime experiencing the greatest change across both campuses is assault and battery with a 400 percent decrease.
Student Sal Davalos has attended LBCC for almost two years and said the police presence on campus "makes me feel safer." Davalos said he was appreciative of the campus police when they helped him jump-start his car. Without the police on campus, more people who are not students would come on the campus and start problems, Davalos said.
Norman Bolden expressed similar ideas as Davalos when he said, "As far as I know there are a whole lot of people here who are troublemakers." When talking about how campus police do their job, Bolden said, "I haven't heard of anything bad happening so I guess they're doing they're job."
Student Coreyon Oakley said, "I think they're doing a good job if rates are going down."
Following the slight increase in crime rates is the greater Long Beach area. According to an article in the L.B. Press-Telegram Tuesday, June 10, violent and property crime statistics show minor signs of growth.
With a 1 percent increase in violent crime and a 2 percent increase in property crime, the Long Beach area contradicts early national crime statistics, which shows a decline in both categories.
Long Beach Police Department's administration bureau chief Braden Phillips said no trend has been observed in the slight increase of crime. However, Phillips did recognize an increase in the stealing of stealing personal devices like iPods and cell phones.
Lt. Julie Prior of LBCC campus police was unavailable to comment on the 2007-08 report.
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