Her car was broken into for the first time last March.
Then, weeks later, after replacing $1,000 worth of stolen items, it happened again to PSU student Cherie Nguyen.
“It happened right in the middle of the day,” she said about the second break-in where the replaced items once again were stolen. “New textbook, lost again, new backpack, lost again.”
Both break-ins occurred in Parking Structure 1 on campus.
For Portland State students and others who park on campus, testimonies like Nguyen’s may sound familiar.
Car-related thefts and break-ins have been on the rise in and around the Portland State campus. Last year, from January through April, PSU’s Campus Public Safety Office reported 34 vehicle break-ins where items were stolen. This year, 49 break-ins have been reported since January.
Additionally, records from the Portland Police Bureau report around 345 break-ins from April 2007 through last March within a half-mile radius from Smith Memorial Student Union.
Park at your own risk
While Campus Public Safety has a presence in the various parking structures on campus, it is up to Department of Transportation and Parking enforcement officers to make sure the structures are under surveillance, said Michael Soto, chief of Campus Public Safety.
“We’ll patrol through and do stuff like writing tickets,” Soto said.
Public Safety officers check the parking structures two or three times in an eight-hour shift, he said.
Campus Public Safety also helps train personnel from the parking office to recognize suspicious behavior and activity, Soto said.
“Basically we have 17 enforcement officers that patrol the garages,” said Sarah Renkens, manager of Transportation and Parking.
In the event of an incident like a car break-in, enforcement officers are required to call Campus Public Safety officers if a situation occurs, Renkens said. “Our officers are all student workers.”
Enforcement officers patrol the parking garages from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Friday and Saturday, Renkens said. The current number of enforcement officers is up from last year, when 12 officers were patrolling the parking structures.
Nguyen thinks the number of officers able to respond to situations is not enough.
“They always say they’re short of people right now,” she said. “They don’t have enough time to run all over the place.”
The question of adding security cameras
Nguyen, who has parked her vehicle in Parking Structure 1 for two years, said the daylight break-ins to her car could have been avoided if there were security cameras installed in the structure.
But, Soto said, security cameras in the parking structures would be a waste of resources.
“Would I use it as a crime prevention tool? No,” Soto said. “It would take too many cameras to accomplish what would be needed to ensure personal property safety. I’d rather put bodies into something like this, or special details.”
Security cameras have been a topic of discussion in the past, Renkens said, but right now there are no definite–or even satisfactory–plans for installation.
“Security cameras have been on the table and then off the table,” she said. “At this point, logistically, we haven’t figured out a way to do it.”
The main issue would be hiring a paid staff member to monitor the cameras, she said, a cost in which the transportation office would have to cover.
“We have looked at a few different options,” she said. “I would hope that it would be kind of a joint venture [with Public Safety].”
Instead, the parking office has focused on increasing the number of enforcement officers patrolling at any given time, Renkens said.
“At this point we’re definitely focusing on increasing the number of people we get to patrol the garages, and the frequency that they patrol the garages,” she said.
In the meantime, Renkens stressed the importance of students taking their belongings with them when they park, or storing them in the trunk.
“Anyone who parks in the parking structure should not leave valuables in their car,” she said.
Dealing with break-ins
Despite the university’s efforts to increase safety in the parking structures, many students feel that PSU needs to do more.
Mackie Duong, a criminal justice student, said that her car has not been broken into, but she still feels that the parking structures are not safe.
“I hear a lot of my friends get stuff stolen all the time,” Duong said.
Another student, Rossella Deleon, has had her car broken into three times since last year.
“I think they’re doing their job, but I’m not sure what exactly they’re doing,” Deleon said about Campus Safety. “I would see their cars roaming around, but they don’t know when the cars are broken into.”
After the third break-in of her car, Deleon said she stopped driving to school.
“I guess I think it’s kind of messed up,” she said. “I think that it sucks that security is not quite what you’re paying for, I think that should be a part of it, because you’re paying $258 a term.”