Following a plethora of break-ins and vandalism in the fall semester, Cerritos College has instituted multiple changes to make the campus a safer environment both during and after school hours.
On Sept. 30, 2012 Cerritos College Police Chief Richard Bukowiecki said that eight Macintosh computers had been stolen from the Math Success Center.
In an incident he believes was unrelated on the same day, both the Student Activities Center and the Game Room were broken in to and vandalized.
Then, both the Student Activities Building and the Fine Arts Building were broken in to during October and November.
Some computers from the Fine Arts Building and a master key from the Student Activities building were stolen.
Architecture major Juan Torres feels that not just property may be in jeopardy if these break-ins continue, but also students’ educational opportunities.
“I know many classes depend on working computers, so if those continue to disappear then students suffer.
“Protecting students’ education should be a focus of campus police. Right after safety, of course”, Torres said.
Bukowiecki said that the new security measures the campus police have put into action around the school will surely prevent future break ins.
An increase in security in regard to staffing and properly securing valuable items were the focal point of the changes.
“We don’t like to advertise what we’re doing, but it’s really easy to see that we’ve implemented new locking devices on all of the computers”, he said.
“You can also probably notice fairly easily that there are cameras now in [the Fine Arts building] area. We also implemented many things immediately to try to reduce these kind of crimes.”
Multiple staffing and shift changes have also been made by the campus police, Bukowiecki added.
While security has always been present on campus, the increased notability of security guards even during busy school hours is proof that action is being taken to prevent incidents in the future.
“We’re a 24/7 police department”, Bukowiecki said. “We always have people present”.
