The truth about USC's safety/crime rate?

<p>S just had his clunker bike stolen today. He had it for almost a year and was very good about locking it properly. Oh well, the thing needed a lot of work including brakes. Hope he can find another bike over the w/e!</p>

<p>S found his bike! It was such a clunker that even the thief ditched it!!!</p>

<p>Ha ha that is hilarious! Good for your son Pebbles</p>

<p>Here’s a good, humorous take on the bike situation. Sums up my thoughts exactly:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.break.com/video/ugc/chamelion-xle-383947[/url]”>http://www.break.com/video/ugc/chamelion-xle-383947&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Hello everybody! I’m planning on applying to USC. I’m just wondering if USC has improved its security measures by a lot now. For those who attend or have attended USC or are familiar with the area, do you feel safe on campus? I’ve read the annual security report, and it says that security has increased. Do you feel safe going off campus? Only during certain times? (Obviously going out at midnight wouldn’t be safe, but how is it during the morning and the afternoon?)</p>

<p>For example, how safe would you feel going off-campus (by foot and by transit) to have lunch or dinner with a friend?</p>

<p>Didn’t take the time to read every post in this thread, but I know the area fairly well and even studied it to some degree. Let me be frank. Don’t kid yourselves. USC is located and largely surrounded by some really tough neighborhoods. I mean hell, the school borders street gang territory on it’s west side (Fruit Town Brims), Rolling 20’s Bloods to the East, Crips on all south and west sides of the stadium… … …</p>

<p>The good news? USC has carved out a little Oasis for itself. It’s supplemented by the fact that you literally have two overlapping law enforcement agencies that offer you multiple degrees of protection, DPS and LAPD. Then you have LA County Sheriff whose responsibility it is to handle the expo line that runs by the south and east sides of campus. You’ll often see a Dep. sitting in his vehicle on the expo park lawn. Finally…security, security everywhere. Guards at entrances, at the museums, on the row. Many of them armed.</p>

<p>Further good news is that a lot of the gangs, in general, leave USC and it’s students alone. I don’t know if that’s because they see it as a positive in the community or if they are terrified at the almighty law enforcement protection that surrounds it. I’m going with the second.</p>

<p>Your largely under an incredible degree of protection. But stray out side that bubble, and there may be issues. In the end, you know the police are not always be there for you when you need them most. It’s up to you to use the same amount of care and prudence that you would if you were walking around UCLA at night or any other college. </p>

<p>You know the drill. Don’t walk alone at night, be aware of your surroundings, know where the blue emergency beacons are at all times, etc.</p>

<p>If you are really interested in knowing about the surrounding community of USC, head down to LAPD Southwest Division and schedule a ride along and see for yourself. On top of it all, learn something new and add to your already incredible education.</p>

<p>From the horrific news this summer and all the reports of robberies and muggings, I am not sure about the gangs leaving the kids alone. Yes, inside the campus is safe, but just outside a couple blocks away, there are not enough DPS or police patrols, period. If there were they would have avoided a terrible tragedy this summer and students wouldn’t be robbed regularly. The majority of the posts on this forum the last few months have been about how much money is being donated to USC. Buckets and buckets of money, but not seeing any news about spending some of it on increased security. Just like the tragedy a couple years before, they count on a new naive class coming in and memories fading or going with those who graduate. They ramp up for a month or two after a tragic event, then it all goes back to minimum security again. They do not have enough DPS patrol people outside of the campus fence in the DPS zone, simple as that. You really have to decide what kind of campus you want to be at. Sure, a lot are in urban areas and deal with the same things USC does, bad things happen everywhere, blah blah blah. But some are in settings and areas that are quite lovely. Each person has to decide what is important to them and what fits them best.</p>

<p>Sigh - to live a life like this …</p>

<p>Where the bubble starts and ends is debatable. But I tend to agree with your assessment anyways. You are safest on campus. And the farther you stray from campus, the more likely, as small as that risk is, you are to be the victim of crime. I think anything West of campus and anything south of Expo Park are the worst. </p>

<p>As far as DPS patrolling around the communities of USC, they have a Memorandum of Understanding with LAPD. DPS is largely to leave the Southwest Division Patrol areas to LAPD while DPS largely takes care of campus, the immediate vicinity of campus and a few select areas like The Row. That’s not to say if a DPS officer standing on campus sees a student getting robbed across the street, that the officer is not going to take action or if a bored LASD Deputy is sitting at Expo Park watching the trains go by and a suspicious man trying to break into a building on USC’s campus, he isn’t going to snatch the burglary suspect up. As Peace Officers, they are sworn to act. You might see how it can get confusing though. Who’s responsibility is it to respond to what calls, who investigates which crimes, LAPD might say this procedure, policy or tactic should be done this way, while DPS understands another way that’s better for its students, etc. For example, DPS largely patrols the row because they usually give Partied Out (that’s a word, right? I heard it on Wayne’s World…) students a huge break and are more spirit of the law than letter of the law where as LAPD may not be so willing to do so. No use throwing your college career out the window over a stupid, teenage mistake.</p>

<p>USC is a mini city in and of itself and certainly it’s officers are POST certified law enforcement officers similar to Cal State Los Angeles Police or University of California Los Angeles Police with full and complete law enforcement powers. Even if USC wanted to spend the extra money on DPS (they don’t, they are a business and love Capitalism, probably unlike some of their professors), they probably wouldn’t get LAPD to agree based on the MOU. </p>

<p>And let’s be frank, shall we? Too many police officers in and around USC would certainly turn up the heat on the “bad guys”, likely making them move elsewhere, but would also lead to student protests, anti-police state feelings and the next thing you know, it’s Ferguson, MO down at USC because some knucklehead at an anti-police protest throws a bottle at an LAPD officer and then LAPD calls in the cavalry. </p>

<p>Slightly off subject, but I was always fond of the LA County Sheriff’s Tactic with Compton. Simple really. Almost too simple to work. Double the manpower. After Compton Police was deposed of, LASD came in and did just that. They doubled the officers they originally had placed and crime sank like a rock. Now, Compton isn’t the shining beacon of crime free joy, I know. But if you remember what it used to be and what it is now, things have changed dramatically. It’s largely a success story. I went on patrol with them down there several months ago to see for myself. With all the movies and culture surrounding Compton, I was expecting gang shootings and pursuits and at least 1 helicopter over 1 crime scene. Nope, all was quiet. A court enforced restraining order arrest, detaining a young, but forever lost gang banger walking down the street, a man versus bicycle accident that we rolled Code 3 to all the way across the city…</p>

<p>Los Angeles is cash strapped as it is. There isn’t a chance in hell they’d be willing to do something like that at Southwest Division. DPS won’t because it probably would cost too much and the MOU restrictions. </p>

<p>So I think you are right. They contracted an inexpensive company to guard a few gates at night and given enough time, we can expect something like this to happen in the future. :-/</p>

<p>I do not feel unsafe on the campus and I take mass transit to the university every day (Expo Line). Would I walk late at night past Vermont or wander past Expo Park? Absolutely not. But I’ve lived in Oakland and D.C., and both those places were definitely more concerning on a day-to-day basis. Living in any city means you need to be alert about your surroundings, and considering the degree of protection the university provides, I find it to be a useful skill for kids who have lived in a suburban bubble to learn.</p>

<p>And outside of the shooting that occurred on campus between people who were not students whatsoever back in October 2012 (two years ago!), I have not heard of anyone on-campus “targeted” by gangs.</p>

<p>My job with the university often requires me to work in South L.A., and one of the first things you learn is that area violence tends to avoid white people and university students because of the heat those victims bring. DPS has cameras everywhere; it’s tough for them to even mug a student without getting caught.</p>

<p>The Chinese graduate student who died this past summer was killed by a group of teenagers on some kind of armed assault spree, and was in the wrong place at the wrong time (walking late at night during a time of year where DPS/yellowshirts do not monitor off-campus). Not because he was a USC student.</p>

<p>If you’re a student, and especially a female student, you have more to fear from your peers and a truly toxic culture of binge drinking than what exists outside the DPS/LAPD patrol area.</p>

<p>Wong place, wrong time is 2 blocks from campus then. Actually he was within a block of the Row and it is a DPS monitor zone, absolutely. They just don’t staff it as they would have you believe, een during the regular school year. Go there and try to find a DPS patrol person. And where did they say they quit patrolling in the summer? Was there a bulletin on this? Silly to say he wasn’t targeted as a student, sure he was, they wouldn’t have attacked one of their own kind of gang trash, they were looking for easy target. Bottom line is USC is a greedy money hungry endowment building group of people that doesn’t put the safety of their students in high regard. If they did they would be spending more of that money on securing the neighborhood around USC. My gosh, this isn’t a large geographic area, most of the students live in few city blocks in each direction. They are failing at security.</p>

<p>The Daily Trojan wrote an article about a year ago about LAPD monitoring the row. It was an effort, in conjunction with DPS, to step up security and decrease crime, especially during parties. The students were not happy about it in general. </p>

<p>From the article:
Students had strong opinions about LAPD’s new involvement.</p>

<p>“It’s unnecessary for the LAPD to be on The Row,” said Abiola Oseni, a sophomore majoring in business administration. “I feel like they can do better things with the tax payers’ money. We already have DPS officers on The Row, and I don’t feel unsafe on The Row now, so I don’t feel like they need to have an increased presence there.”</p>

<ul>
<li>See more at: <a href=“Students react to LAPD’s monitoring of The Row - Daily Trojan”>Students react to LAPD’s monitoring of The Row - Daily Trojan;
</ul>

<p>To be fair, it was more for monitoring parties and backing up DPS for non-compliance. But you can see with an increased police presence, out come the Guy Fawkes masks.</p>

<p>It is about money. Absolutely. The City has other priorities and so does USC. But even with a ton of extra security, you are going to still get tragedies. Just the nature of South LA I’m sad to say.</p>

<p>@blueskies2day… Uh, they attacked other people who weren’t USC students. They were caught far away, at Dockweiler State Beach, where they robbed someone else. This was not premeditated and he was not targeted. He was just there and they were clearly lacking some parenting.</p>

<p>And actually DPS yellow-shirts are on that corner throughout the semester. I know people who actually live there. I’ve been there. Yellow-shirts are almost always there, bringing an entirely different set of problems (including student harassment). But the beating occurred during the summer, and DPS reduces staffing as a result. If he was walking home during the school year, he’d probably still be alive.</p>

<p>That does not absolve the university of any wrongdoing. I find it absolutely ridiculous that the school increased security for Max Nikias because seventeen students sat on the floor of Bovard demanding to speak to school officials about human rights, but couldn’t spring for some yellow-shirts during the summer. The school expanded the Campus Cruiser radius, but students are waiting ridiculously long periods of time for a safe ride (which indicates funding is lacking somewhere).</p>

<p>From an article out today re the 2 Chinese students in the BMW
"Bolden’s cellmate was a police informant who secretly recorded him discussing how he and a friend had planned to steal the couple’s BMW. The 22-year-old Bolden is charged with two counts of murder and attempted murder and assault with a firearm in a separate shooting that occurred months earlier…</p>

<p>Deputy District Attorney Dan Akemon showed jurors a 90-minute-long police interview that he said was Bolden’s confession. In it Bolden admitted that he and a friend targeted USC to find well-off victims."</p>

<p>Last sentence in that quoted article is the point. It is silly to think they don’t target USC students. The summer incident was the first of the evening for the trash that did this, so I would say he was a target (because he was there at USC) and it was certainly premeditated, they ended up at the beach to flee the first attack and continue the spree. </p>

<p>But we both agree, USC needs to do more, simple as that. I am tired of reading about all the millions and millions they receive in donations it seems almost daily, and not reading about what they are doing to better security for their students.</p>

<p>Sorry, but somebody has to keep beating this drum because they still aren’t listening and reacting as they should. </p>

<p>Maybe - but there is enough theft inside the school to think we need to look at that too and not necessarily from the poor kids - but from some well heeled ones used to getting whatever they want andhaving never had boundaries set.</p>

<p>Is USC in a tough city (let alone neighborhood)? Yes. But isn’t that obvious before people apply? It would be like applying to NYU and being shocked at how spread out it is and in the middle of the city. </p>

<p>There isn’t any substitute for parents teaching basic skills to students before they go off the college. My kid is local and the students are always stealing her things (the studio is locked so only students with badges can come in). And I remember being on a USC parent forum where the mother of an international student constantly had her materials stolen from studio right on campus.</p>

<p>Violent crime is abhorrent and L.A. needs to spend more attention to solving it. But I do remember a recent shooting in which a “non-gang” “non-poor” BMW driving son of a movie producer shot at classmates because girls wouldn’t go out with him. Said the mother - she got him the BMW hoping it would make him more popular.</p>

<p>So let’s not blame USC for everything. They do more than many colleges do. And frankly - I find some of the “spoiled” kids scarier.</p>

<p>@blueskies2day‌ … I actually thought of you when we start discussing the open day of the trial. I think in 2012, you could make a case that this guy was targeting “well-off” folks (meaning USC students) for ROBBERY (not murder, as that quote implies–Bolden was happy to admit he killed someone, but even the prosecution concedes that was not the original intent). Every article always refers to it as a botched robbery, which is a key difference (because you can’t prevent all robberies at any campus).</p>

<p>But the double-murder is also example of some incredible police work (they nailed their suspects within 8 hours) and has largely served as a deterrent to outside forces that if you commit a crime at or near USC, you’re likely to get busted. Both DPS and LAPD have invested heavily in a lot of technology since that incident to expedite the process of capturing suspects. It’s pretty darn good. Preventative patrolling absolutely needs work.</p>

<p>As for your theory on the group of teenagers that killed Xinran Ji over the summer, there’s nothing whatsoever that corroborates that and that’s just idle speculation. Considering these were teenagers armed with bats and wrenches, I’m not sure if I buy that.</p>

<p>I think these incidents have hit close to home. It was almost a Pearl Harbor attack that shocked everyone because a lot of students feel they are 7 feet tall and bullet proof and USC, as compared to the rest of south LA, is relatively safe and tame. A lot of students probably felt that it couldn’t happen to their community. But it did. </p>

<p>In California, we are fortunate enough to have the “Felony Murder Rule” (California Penal Code 189). If someone is killed during your participation of a violent felony (such as robbery, arson, rape, kidnapping, etc).</p>

<p>For example, if you intentionally start a fire and that fire spreads to a house and consumes and kills the person in that house, you can be charged with murder (including the prosecution seeking the death penalty).</p>

<p>Even if that was not the intent of the robbery, I think a case can be made pretty easy for murder even without Felony Murder Rule.</p>

<p>LAPD isn’t going to do more. They don’t have the budget for it and the city isn’t willing to give them it. USC isn’t going to do more. They are a business and that’s just an added expense they don’t care to add. </p>

<p>In reality the students are going to have to realize that the police or DPS cannot protect you. You are going to have to do that for yourselves. </p>

Okay usc die hards, its located in an area that I would not want to get lost in. Is that sensitive enough for you?
Many valid points have been expressed but the underlying truth is that the area surrounding usc is more dangerous than about 90% of cities in California.
prospects: I mean are you reading the comments? “usc is in a safe neighborhood, just don’t go east, west, or south,” “the campus is mostly gated,” “there are security guards (yellow coats) everywhere,” idk about your opinion, but none of those comments made it seem like usc is in a safe area. It’s probably true that the crime rates are lower than they’ve been in 50 years, I honestly felt that when I visited, but I also experienced that 2 out of the 3 places I went to at night, had no one in sight when I got there and when I made my way to the car, I was walked up on by strangers who appeared seemingly out of nowhere (one asked for money, the other facial tattooed gentlemen on a bike simply asked what I was looking for, yet it was still unorthodox and never happens to me in areas known as “safe”). Other campuses (urban ones included) are not heavily fenced, nor do they have security guards everywhere, nor do they have the limitations like “its probably best if you only go north of campus and no other directions.” Nothing is wrong with attending usc, you can choose to huddle near the campus at all times and you will probably never have a serious crime inflicted onto you, or you can be socially/economically conscious, and take in everything you see as a learning experience. Also I second what Lencias said about being aware of your surroundings; USE YOUR PERIPHERAL VISION and don’t wander far from your campus/dorm/car (mainly at night).

also another post was right, it isn’t watts or compton, and its far from being like thousand oaks, and if you are smart, (and not looking to help impoverished peoples, underserved populations, or conduct an ethnographic research study) then you’ll want to be in a safe area like thousand oaks anyway, there’s nothing wrong with a little peace of mind!

USC is one of those campuses that needs to be visited. For some, the surrounding neighborhood will be unacceptable. For others, the (VERY) significant security presence will reassure that students are quite safe on campus. Stories of serious crimes against students are very rare.

Personally, I would have no qualms about sending a student to USC. But everyone has a different comfort level when it comes to safety on campus.