As often as students hear about attacks on campus, there are more vandalisms and petty crimes, such as backpacks being stolen or vehicles being broken into, which occur on campus yearly.

Some of these are preventable and some of these reflect ARC's geography.

"These crimes are common sense crimes," said Los Rios Police Department's Sergeant Alex Montoya.

With more than 34,000 students enrolled at American River College, it appears a fraction suffer such common sense crimes. Information gathered from the Los Rios Police Crime Log for American River College, indicates there were 25 vandalisms, 28 petty thefts, and 17 auto burglaries verses eight batteries on school grounds, one attempted petty theft, and one robbery from January 2006 till Dec. 4, 2006.  

Students need to keep their guard up while on campus. There are several steps that students can take to protect themselves from becoming a victim. Students should walk in numbers and have keys ready when entering the parking lot. Another trend emerging is students walking around campus with an iPod or other electronic music device in their ears. This is strongly discouraged as students are

unable to be aware and engaged in their surroundings. Another way students can help protect themselves is using some of the services that American River College provides, such as police escorts and the shuttle.

"I wish more people would take advantage of that [the shuttle]," said Montoya. "It's like a bus. You can ride from one side of campus to the other. I think it's a great program."

The shuttles have several stops on the campus. Students can summon a shuttle by calling the campus police department or by using one of the 17 blue phones located throughout the campus. The shuttle will pick up students and escort them to their cars Monday through Friday from 5:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.

If a student is on campus after the last shuttle has departed from campus, a student still has the option to ask for a police escort.

"Although there is no guaranteed time that [campus police] can get to a student, we will try to get there as soon as possible," said Montoya.

Although many students have cell phones, all students also have the ability to use the handy blue phones placed around campus. Those phones connect directly to the police dispatch here on campus versus a cell phone call placed via 911. This can help cut down on the

needless transferring between police departments in Sacramento County and Campus Police.   

One blue phone located near the Rose Marks Quad has been out of service for more than two years. When Montoya was asked why this phone does not work, the question was referred to Captain Chris Day.

Captain Day was unavailable for comment by press time.

Even with campus police around to help supervise the most obvious crimes, there is a lot more that goes into making sure that the campus is safe for everyone, day or night.

"It's everyone's responsibility to help with security," said Utilities Systems Supervisor Mike Nelson.  

If a student feels that there is an unsafe place on campus, such as not enough lighting on campus, they should report to the Administration office.

"That is the first step to getting something looked at," said Nelson.

Many students say they feel quite comfortable on campus whether taking classes during the day or at night.

"I feel pretty comfortable with the security here," said Michelle Ramirez, a psychology major. Ramirez said she does take night classes and said, "I have no worries."