Concerned parents calling themselves SafeBears have raised $40,000 to pay for security guards or "safety ambassadors" to patrol the UC Berkeley campus area for a few weeks in early March.
UC Berkeley may be one of America’s most prestigious schools, but its location in the California Bay Area has parents and students both wary of safety on campus. A group called SafeBears, that touts itself as comprising "1,300+ Cal parents and community allies working to improve safety for UC Berkeley students," has worked to solve the problem themselves, hoping their prototypical program of patrols around campus will inspire the college to take more action themselves.
The SafeBears website declares that "Cal parents raised over $40,000 to conduct a private security pilot program around UC Berkeley" that was "inspired by USC’s Safety Ambassadors program." These privately hired security guards have been patrolling the campus area from 6:30 p.m. at night to 3 a.m. starting on March 6, but will only continue to do so until March 23.
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The organization of parents cited a litany of local issues and incidents making the case that students are in dire need of more protection on campus, ranging from citing an "armed robbery spree" to a pattern of trespassing incidents, such as when "a convicted felon made his way to a sixth floor shower in a first-year residence hall before being arrested by UCPD." All the while, SafeBears noted that the Berkeley Police Department is "in the midst of a staffing crisis."
SafeBears president Sagar Jethani, who has twin sons at Berkeley, voiced his frustration to CBS News arguing the college has not taken enough action to protect students themselves, "The fact is if they're not going to act, despite repeated pleas from parents and students to take more substantial action, then we're going to act."
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He added further, "We want to, frankly, turn up the heat with the administration. We want to show that we're not content to just wait forever to have these safety ambassadors deployed."
The pilot program of these patrols by hired security will reportedly only last until March 23, after which time parents reportedly hope the university will take over.
A spokesperson from UC Berkeley raised concerns about the effort to Fox News Digital and noted the campus' own efforts to keep people safe.
"Hiring private security raises a number of concerns including the training and experience of individuals hired by such firms," the spokesperson warned. "Further, any security effort on the campus must be coordinated with UCPD, independent of the funding source."
The spokesperson contested that funding can best be used in other ways.
"We believe that university funds are better spent hiring more sworn or non-sworn UCPD officers for standard daily response efforts. Parents who want to donate funds toward additional campus security can do so via a university fund that has been established," the spokesperson wrote, "We do not believe that private security should take precedence over hiring sworn officers. In addition, a holistic approach to campus safety is required and is the most effective approach."
Numerous new efforts from the school administration were mentioned as well. One such initiative was "Increased security efforts" including "key card access to buildings, surveillance cameras, and dedicated on-site staff." Another was the "Increased staffing of Community Service Officers" or "CSOs" which are trained students employed by the UCPD. The spokesperson elaborated that "Early in the fall semester we had 58 CSOs, next week we will be up to 90, and we are planning to increase staffing to at least 100 Community Service Officers."
All of this is in addition to Berkeley's ongoing efforts, such as night safety services and student safety education.
