Apartment crime rate seen as ‘unnecessary disaster'
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By Brandon Bailey and Chuck Coppola
Staff Writere
Crime is inevitable in the university area, but the rate on campus and in the university apartments is an "unnecessary disaster," said Ron McElhaney, president of the Student Community Council.
Out of seven attempted rapes reported in the university area last year, four occurred near the Cardinal Gardens and Century apartment complexes on Jefferson Boulevard.
In a recent burglary attempt at Cardinal Gardens, a man held four residents at bay with a toy gun. The gun looked real enough to cause a Campus Security officer to shoot the suspect three times.
Of the three largest university-owned apartment complexes, the open-courtyard style at Cardinal Gardens has had the highest crime rate.
Sgt. Gary Rus of Campus Security said there might be a correlation between the higher number of incidents at Cardinal Gardens and the open-courtyard design of that complex.
The Cardinal Gardens complex was designed by Leon Gluckman and Associates within guidelines set by the Community Redevelopment Agency, which called for a garden-type complex.
"We tried to make it as burglar-proof as possible," Gluckman said. The security considerations in his design are the mechanical parking lot gates, the spiked iron entrance gates to the apartment stairwells and the concrete fence around the complex.
The w'alls around the complex are low, however, making it easer for outsiders to enter the complex even when the front gate is locked. There are many places around Cardinal Gardens where an outsider could go over the wall without being seen.
"VVe considered putting broken glass on top of the fence but it was not allowed by the police. That's only allowed in Europe," Gluckman said.
As for the parking lot gates, both Campus Security and residents agree there is a serious problem w'ith broken
mechanisms, and the gates are open much of the time.
The gates at Century Apartments are identical to the ones at Cardinal Gardens, and are reported to breakdown just as frequently.
Both Campus Security officials and residents attribute the problem to students who want to park inside the gates when they don't have a magnetic key card. Students pop the gates open "as a matter of convenience," Steven Ward said.
The 10-foot high spiked iron entrance gates to the Cardinal Gardens stairwells are also rendered ineffective when students deliberately prop them open for people without keys.
If the architect of Cardinal Gardens says his design provided for security considera-tins, why are there security problems?
Glucksman said a lack of security must be a management problem. He mentioned that the National Assn. of Home Builders offers courses to complex managers in operating a burglar-proof building.
Sharon Tanguay, head resident of Cardinal Gardens, commented that "a com-(continued on page 3)
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University of Southern California
Volume LXXVI, Number 5
Monday, February 12, 1979
Fraternity pledges plead innocent to theft charges
By Marsha Johnston
City Editor
Five university students are scheduled for a pretrial hearing Feb. 26 in Orange County Harbor Judicial District Courtafter pleading innocent to two charges each of grand theft.
The Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity pledges were arrested in what may have been a fraternity prank at the Oakwood Apartment complex, 820 Irvine Drive in Newport Beach. They allegedly confiscated four chairs and a United States flag and stand.
At the time of arrest the students were driving a U-Haul truck containing two tables, six chairs, a Coca-Cola clock, a gar-
LAPD reports arrest rise
A special Los Angeles Police Department crime task force has been operating on campus for a week and has already resulted in several arrests.
A police statistical study of the Southwest Division shows that crime in the university area increased 8.5%, and the university was directly responsible for25%of that increase.
In 1978, further statistics show that total crime in the area went up 155.9% from 1977.
As a result, the task force was swung into operation one week ago, and has brought seven arrests by officers, Capt. Albert Fried of LAPD's Southwest Division said.
He said that no other location in the area has so many "prime targets" and attracts as much crime as the parking lots around campus.
The task force consists of plainclothed policemen and Campus Security officers. Their primary mission is to "patrol, survey, follow and watch" even,' suspicious activity in the parking lots and residential areas around the university.
One encouraging note from Fried is that incidents of assault around campus are minor. The number of such incidents here is "very small" as compared to other areas. "When they happen, they become a point of notoriety. But it is a minor problem," Fried said.
Statistics seem to back up Fried. For 1978, there were only 10 cases of aggravated assault reported. Only two rapes were reported, down from three in 1977.
Both the LAPD and Campus Security agree that automobile burglaries and theft of property are the biggest crime problems on campus.
Campus Security's monthly crime report for January showed that there w'ere 33 auto
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den hose and a 12 by 3-foot California road sign that said "Zzyzc Road.''
The students involved are Terrance Moloney, 19; Jeffrey Ris, 19; David Crowell, 18; Randall Pittman, 20; and Charles Hayden, 20.
A Newport Beach Police Department report said the six other chairs came from the Balboa Bay Club pool lounge area, the clock from a cafe in Las Vegas and the road sign from a highway to Las Vegas.
"Evidently they went around the city collecting things," said Bob Gatewood, a detective for the Newport Beach police.
Officer William Mclnnis made the arrest after he said he saw Moloney leave the complex with some pool cues.
The police report said when Mclnnis confronted Moloney and Ris next to the U-Haul truck they told him they had a pick-up order for the items
Mclnnis said he walked around the complex with Moloney for about 45 minutes before asking a citizen to call the police.
At that time, the report said, Moloney became nervous and Mclnnis handcuffed him.
Moloney asked Mclnnis to unbutton his shirt and showed him an SAE fraternity pledge pin, the report said.
Moloney gave Mclnnis the names of the other students in the truck and explained that the incident was a fraternity stunt.
Robert Mannes. dean for student life, said his office had gotten word of the mci-dentand has scheduled a meeting w ith the fraternity next week.
"If USC students are involved with an incident relating to the laws we don't have an automatic requirement to take action
But if there are educational overtones — (continued on page 2)
New chief of security implements reorganization
DT photo by Larry Drum
SAME FACES — Campus Security officers will be sporting a new uniform in an attempt to implement change in the organization. The new uniforms will be tan instead of blue-gray.
Complaints charge report discrepancies
By Bob Conti
Staff Writer
New uniforms aren't the only changes being made in the Campus Security Department.
Internal reorganization of the department including a clarification of policies and procedures are being made, Steve Ward, chief of Campus Security, said.
In the revision, armed officers who used to provide escort service have been moved to patrols in an effort to act asa deterrent to crime. Ward hopes to increase the number of foot patrols as well.
Ward, who was hired by the university to serve as a security consultant last year and was appointed as chief in December, said he saw manv skeletal problems in the security organization. Efforts to change the department's operations extend to crime prevention, analysis of crimes that occur on campus and possible alleviation, plus keeping more accurate records and publishing crime reports.
For the past several years, complaints were lodged concerning discrepancies in Campus Security's reports. They alleged that the files were padded to lessen any negative image the reports might generate.
"There'll be no fudging, no hiding of reports while I'm in this office,” Wjird said.
The security department now publishes monthly crime reports, which are available to the public. Thev break dow n the reports into specific categories such as rape, auto theft and kidnapping, listing the number of each incident.
In addition, Wrard ordered an audit of the crime reports for the past year, "Out of thousands of reports we were missing 13," he said.
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DT photo by Doug Hoover
... NEW LOOK — Changes in the department will also include internal reorganization of increased foot patrols and closer coordination with the Los Angeles Police Department.