Friday, May 17, 1996
Student escorts aim to provide safe company for the campus
communityBy Marie Blanchard
Daily Bruin Contributor
Late at night, Andrew Ikeda likes to patrol the roof of the
Engineering 4 building while doing his rounds.
"This is my favorite place to do field work, you have a great
view of what’s going on," he said.
From the roof Ikeda can see about four other parking structures.
"Sometimes when it gets quiet I like to imagine that something is
going to happen on the top of the structures, in one of the cars,"
Ikeda said. "I imagine someone pulling another person into a car
… Then I imagine what I would do, how I would react … it kills
time."
But in all the time Ikeda has been a community service officer
(CSO), he has never seen crimes as serious as a vandalism or an
assault from his rooftop. Once, Ikeda spotted rollerbladers playing
hockey on a parking structure roof  hardly a cause for
alarm.
Ikeda is the supervisor of the Community Safety Program Â
the nightly escort service to UCLA affiliates  and manages
the 25 to 30 CSOs who work each night patrolling the campus.
The objective of the program is to make the campus as safe as
possible for students, faculty, staff and visitors, explained Jason
Pak, the fields operations coordinator. Their activities range from
van driving, building lockups, escort service and bike patrolling.
The officers, who are all full-time students, patrol the campus
area daily until about 1:30 a.m.
On this Wednesday night, the evening shift is proving to be
calm. A few CSOs wait around the office hoping for escort calls,
others come in and out after doing rounds on campus.
Albert Woo is one of the four escort CSOs on duty tonight. For
the most part he will be escorting callers and patrolling various
areas of campus. On average, Woo said he escorts about five or six
persons a night, usually females.
His first escort Wednesday night is Alice Do, a fourth-year
biology student, who wanted an escort to her car.
Do said she first started using the program when she transferred
to UCLA two years ago and heard that violent crimes had gone up on
campus. She added that she is so satisfied with the CSO escorts
that she would be willing to pay more to insure the program’s
continuation.
"I expect something like this from a university. It’s worth
paying extra for the security," she said.
After 15 minutes, Woo and Do reached her lone car in the
desolate university parking lot. Woo checks the back seat of her
car and waits till Do has driven off before he radios his
supervisors.
"Usually the walks take about 20 minutes. I like longer escorts
because they kill time," Woo said.
Woo has been working as an officer for eight months and said he
is very happy with his job.
"We’re helping make the campus safer, we’re making a bit of
difference," he said.
In fact, both current and former CSOs have been so affected by
the program that they continued their community safety careers and
became police officers. Four officers at the UCLA university police
department are former CSOs including Sgt. John Adams, who now heads
the program.
Current community service officers may be heading in the same
direction. Pak was a CSO for five years and is now hoping to become
a police officer at the university police.
He originally became a CSO after he didn’t get another job he
was hoping for, Pac said, but learned to take pride in his job.
"Every time a CSO does their job and escorts someone, they are
allowing someone else to be a student at UCLA," Pak said. "They are
giving them the opportunity to grab something to eat, see a movie
or go to a friend’s house without being restricted or scared."
Meanwhile on this Wednesday night, Woo is picking up his next
escort of the night.
Kristin Murphy, a second-year medical engineering student, is
going from her sorority on Hilgard Avenue to a friend’s house on
Gayley Avenue. Murphy uses escorts any time she has to walk alone
at night.
"I’ve never heard of anyone being attacked or anything but it’s
a street smart thing," she said. "It’s just better to be safe than
sorry."
While Murphy and Woo walk they pass by Structure 1, a CSO
bicycle patrol circles in and out of parking structures looking for
suspicious activities, such as possible vandals. Every so often
bicycle patrol officers stake-out areas that have been particularly
susceptible to vandals.
Yet supervisor Mike Monterrubio admits that these stakeouts have
been far from rewarding  only one car vandal has been caught
this year during a stakeout.
Community service officers stressed that they are primarily a
deterrence system not actual police officers. Acting as the "eyes
and ears of the police department" CSOs have no legal authority,
Pak said.
Since they carry no weapons, they are only distinguished by
their radios from other students. In fact, CSOs have no power to
issue citations or give tickets  only radio police when they
see a suspicious incident.
Still, the program provides students with evening vans that run
on campus and in Westwood, patrols university buildings and
provides security for special events.
University police officials said they view the CSO program as an
aid to preventing on-campus crime.
"They are a good link because they understand the students and
keep us (police) up to date," Adams said. "But they are never
supposed to put themselves in a situation of danger or
confrontation."
Indeed, there has been only one minor instance in the last 20
years where an on duty CSO was assaulted, Adams added.
However various CSOs in the program said the job is worth any
risk.
"I take a lot of pride in my job," Ikeda said.
Woo agreed, adding, "It beats selling candy."
NIMA BADIEY
Warren Allen, a fourth-year history and African American studies
student, is a van supervisor at the CSO office.