The UCR Task Force on Campus Safety has released a list of 40 recommendations, also known as “action items,” based on existing campus and community security measures. Released on May 8, the recommendations were made publicly available on the task force’s page, found at safety.ucr.edu.
The 40 potential safety initiatives include recommendations such as eliminating unsafe parking spots, increasing the number of police bike patrols, encouraging local apartment managers to participate in the Crime Free Multi-Housing program and increasing the number of emergency call boxes around campus.
According to Chair of the Task Force and Associate Vice Chancellor Charles Rowley, the discussions behind the potential safety initiatives revolved around “promoting safety in areas around the campus, enhancing safety on campus and improving communications with faculty, staff and students about safety issues and resources.
He states that a wide array of staff, faculty, students and community members provided input, which either enhanced existing proposals or developed entirely new ones. Ultimately, no suggestions were excluded from the report.
Chief of Police Mike Lane, Assistant Police Chief John Freese and Lieutenant Andy Flores of the Riverside Police were involved in every task force meeting.
“We collectively provided the group with details about the recent crime trends and the police-related efforts to detect and deter crimes in the impacted area,” stated Lane. “This provided the larger group with some framework to build upon and develop the ideas in the overall list.”
According to Lane, every member in the task force was involved in the development of the recommendations.
As one of three undergraduates of the task force, ASUCR Vice President of Internal Affairs Kevin Jo went into some detail about some of the proposed initiatives during last week’s senate meeting. Jo specifically discussed a vanpool transportation service that would be made available at night.
“So [the van] is going to pick up students from Coffee Bean, and it’s going to do a two mile loop around the UC Riverside campus, so a total diameter of four miles,” Jo explained. “If the apartment is close, they’ll just go. The great thing about this compared to a trolley is that they’ll literally take you from the Coffee Bean to your doorstep.”
Jo states that the van only requires the driver to own a regular commercial license, unlike the trolley, which requires drivers to hold a special license. He says the van initiative is slated to start as early as summer or in the fall of this year at the latest.
Samantha McCamey, a fourth-year anthropology major, called the vanpool “extremely useful and productive.” Highlighting the utility of the vans that travel to and from University Towers, she said she would use the vanpool because “some nights, you feel a little bit eerie, and especially if there’s an increase in the amount of criminal activity going around.”
Third-year biology major Lianna Damargi also expressed support, but indicated that re-instituting the trolley system would be more effective. “I like it too, it’s just that they used to have trolleys around here, maybe they should bring that back … I feel like the trolley was a lot more convenient, it had a lot more stops,” she said.
Also among the forty initiatives are a proposed website where all safety resources can be found, the improvement of lighting at the Falkirk and Oban apartments, the deployment of open-area cameras at places such as the University Extension Center and a campus database of electronic devices.
Although the task force was not given a budget, Rowley states, “Almost 60 percent of the proposals are in the ‘low or medium’ cost categories, so the campus has a wide spectrum of potential projects to consider and adopt.” The recommendations range from no new cost to anywhere in between $1,000 to $5,000.
The task force will discuss the recommendations through a public open house on Thursday, May 23 from noon to 1 p.m. in HUB 302.
