CAMPUS FORCE CUTS CRIME RATE.Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer LANCASTER - Antelope Valley College Antelope Valley College is a comprehensive community college located in Lancaster, California, USA. It is operated by the Antelope Valley Community College District, with a primary service area of 1,945 square miles covering portions of Los Angeles and Kern counties. Police Chief Tom Bryant Tom Bryant (born Chatham, Kent on October 71988) is a professional footballer with Gillingham, with whom he has been associated since the age of ten. A left sided defender, he has yet to make his full debut, but signed as a professional in May 2007. can summarize sum·ma·rize intr. & tr.v. sum·ma·rized, sum·ma·riz·ing, sum·ma·riz·es To make a summary or make a summary of. sum his crime statistics with a simple equation - police visibility is up, crime is down. Criminal reports are down 29.7 percent on the campus, with the number of cases dropping from 131 through April of last year to 92 cases at the same point this year, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. college statistics. ``That's attributable to the high profile we're utilizing,'' Bryant said. ``The training is much higher than it's ever been. The equipment is better.'' The visibility of security staff is on the rise after the college opted to create its own police department about 17 months ago. Patrol cars previously marked ``security'' are now emblazoned with a more eye- catching ``police'' logo and staffed by officers wearing what Bryant refers to as LAPD 1. LAPD - Link Access Procedure on the D channel. 2. LAPD - Los Angeles Police Department. blue. While the number of crimes is down, the calls for service - which can be anything from a crime report to someone wanting an escort to a parked car - have risen. Through April there were 4,767 calls for service, compared with 3,266 at the same point last year. The campus police escort people to their cars 10 to 15 times a day. It is a service that more of the campus community is taking advantage of, Bryant said. Campus police have made 31 arrests so far this year, compared with 36 arrests in all of 2003. ``Calls are up, arrests are up, but (the numbers of) victims are down,'' Bryant said. AVC (1) (Advanced Video Coding) The video compression techniques used in the H.264 standard, jointly developed by ISO and the ITU-T. See H.264. (2) (Audio Visual C board member Steve Buffalo said the move to a police department - replacing the practice of hiring a private security firm - was a reflection of the campus' growth as well as a sign of the times A Sign of the Times was a 1966 single by Petula Clark. Written by Tony Hatch, the uptempo pop number juxtaposed Clark's driving vocals with a powerful brass section. She introduced the tune on the Ed Sullivan Show on February 27, 1966. . Buffalo was a student at the college in the late 1960s when its enrollment was under 5,000 students. The college now has over 12,000 students and a staff of about 800. ``Now you're dealing with a small city,'' Buffalo said. ``After Columbine columbine, in botany columbine (kŏl`əmbīn), any plant of the genus Aquilegia, temperate-zone perennials of the family Ranunculaceae (buttercup family), popular both as wildflowers and as garden flowers. and then 9-11, people felt we needed a stronger force on campus. We're moving in the right direction. Tom's doing a good job and the security is pro-active.'' In years past, the security force has ranged from a night janitor who doubled as a guard to people patrolling the campus in golf carts. In the early 1990s, the college began contracting with a security company to guard the campus, said AVC spokesman Steve Standerfer. ``We saw an influx of some issues, frequently involving non-students on campus,'' Standerfer said. ``We realized we needed to go to the next step.'' The department is comprised of 21 unarmed safety officers, six communication staffers and four sworn peace officers, including Bryant. The department recently started a reserve officer program, adding volunteers to augment aug·ment v. aug·ment·ed, aug·ment·ing, aug·ments v.tr. 1. To make (something already developed or well under way) greater, as in size, extent, or quantity: its force. ``One day we will have all sworn officers,'' Bryant said. ``It's going to take some time. That's a goal for the future.'' All of the department's supervisors have gone through basic police academy training, Bryant said. Through donations and loans, the college has also updated its police equipment, including bringing in a system called Live Scan that can provide background checks through FBI and state Department of Justice records. The equipment has been used to do more than 700 background checks so far. The equipment also includes the Justice Data Interface Controller, which allows the department dispatchers to check license plates and criminal histories. The campus police work with the Sheriff's Department. Bryant meets once a month with Capt. Carl Deeley, commander of the Lancaster sheriff's station, and the Sheriff's Department has assisted with training for the campus police. ``We use the same operating procedures as the Sheriff's Department,'' said John Carey John Carey is the name of:
Jim Skeen, (661) 267-5743 james.skeen(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): photo Photo: (color) AVC President Jackie Fisher, left, swears in reserve officers as Police Chief Tom Bryant, second from left, watches. Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion