DPS releases new crime statistics
Assistant Chief David Carlisle gave insight into theft and other offenses.
By MELISSA GRIMALDO
Content warning: This article contains mentions of sexual assault.
The Department of Public Safety released its 2022 Annual Security and Fire Safety Report in a University-wide email Tuesday, in compliance with the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act. These statistics come from multiple sources that include, but are not limited to, crimes that are reported and in possession of DPS as well as local and State of California agencies.
The Daily Trojan sat down with Assistant Chief David Carlisle, and Stacy Giwa, vice president of culture, ethics and compliance, to speak on the new Clery annual security report and what plans DPS has to deal with prominent issues such as motor vehicle theft and robbery. The Clery Act is known as a consumer protection law that aims to provide transparency around campus crime policy and statistics.
Some rates of crime reporting have increased in recent years, but that can largely be attributed to extenuating circumstances.
“If you have to go back and look at the crime table, what you have to account for is COVID,” Carlisle said. “So crimes reported in [the past few years] were significantly reduced because so many students were not here, working remotely.”
Carlisle went on to explain the importance of understanding the Clery Act’s definitions of a crime, which can differ from those in state and federal law. The differences can lead to a misinterpretation of the crime data, such as the spike in motor vehicle theft in 2022. The ASFSR continuously recorded less than 100 reports of motor vehicle theft as far back as 2018, but reports this year have surpassed 300.
“You have to understand that motorized scooters, which have become ubiquitous here at USC, are classified [by the Clery Act] as motor vehicles,” Carlisle said. “In the last three years there’s been a huge spike. Those motorized scooters four or five years ago were not popular at USC, they’ve become hugely popular.”
Motorized scooters are classified as motor vehicles under the Clery Act, which provides some explanation as to why reported motor vehicle thefts have spiked over the last few years on and around campus. (Razan Asmar / Daily Trojan)
Carlisle stated that DPS has been spending a lot of time attempting to educate the campus community about how to prevent scooter thefts in response. Owning a high-quality lock is the best way to protect your scooter, and officers around campus are on the lookout for broken or unlocked locks. When a jeopardized scooter is spotted, the DPS officers will lock it and notify the owner that they must come and register their vehicle with DPS to help prevent it being stolen in the future.
DPS also conducts a crime analysis each week to look out for hotspots in the area, particularly for crimes such as bike and scooter theft. For other crimes, such as burglary, DPS has conducted community safety advisories, where students will learn about these burglaries and what they can do to prevent them. DPS holds a monthly meeting called COMPSTAT in tandem with the Los Angeles Police Department, California Highway Patrol, Exposition Park DPS, detectives, and analysts.
“We talk about strategies to reduce crime and at the next meeting we see if they work,” Carlisle said. “If they haven’t worked, we try something else and we hold people accountable for those strategies.”
Carlisle said although one crime is not more important than the other, there are certain crimes that are held to a different priority, such as rape and sexual assault. The statistics show a spike in reports of rape in 2018, reaching over 150 reports in response to the arrest of former USC gynecologist George Tyndall, who was charged with sex-related crimes against his former patients.
“We will be more concerned with crimes of violence such as robbery or sexual assault,” Carlisle said. “Fortunately, the thefts are our number one problem and not the other types of crime, but I think we’ve been fairly successful in reducing robberies over the years.”
