<p>I live right near Stanford and follow local news closely. Over the years we have had minor crime waves of various types, but I would not call the local area dangerous by ANY stretch of the imagination. Most of the time it’s about drunks at one bar in downtown Palo Alto OR bikes being stolen (on or off Stanford campus).
These latest incidents have been reported on locally and I don’t believe anyone has been caught, but it sounds like part of the concern is a casual attitude on the part of students - even in Palo Alto I wouldn’t walk about alone very late at night, for example.
Another important idea is to lock your door and be aware of who is going into student residences…a few years back there was a girl who pretended to be a Stanford student by squatting in a dorm (lounge area, etc.)
Another local university, San Jose State, just had a problem with girls being groped/viewed in their rooms - turned out crimes were committed by a fellow student who is now sitting in jail (he did not live in their particular dorm) - this was just a week or two ago! - anyway, in a rather large tower, students were using their keycards to get in and apparently letting others follow - a common practice that needs to be clamped down on. Downtown San Jose is urban and SJSU has an open campus.
I think Stanford, a large private campus which “appears” open may be deceptive in that one thinks nothing can ever happen, but it CAN.
These crime problems surface periodically, theft, whatever, even at Stanford, though Palo Alto is certainly a very upscale place. I wouldn’t attribute these crimes to East Palo Alto (which, while close by and a challenged very small city, IS in another county, after all) - no indications in our local news media that anything happening on the Stanford campus is related whatsoever to East Palo Alto.</p>