SDSUPD gets a jump on campus crime

San Diego State has been a ghost town for the past month as students and faculty left for winter break. Now, as life trickles back into school and students and faculty prepare for the upcoming semester, the SDSU Police Department is making preparations to keep the campus as safe and crime-free as possible.

“Unfortunately, the criminals know our school schedule as well as we do,” SDSUPD Captain Lamine Secka said. “As you see an increase in population, you’re going to see an increase in some of the crimes.”

Secka said SDSUPD’s goal is to stay “ahead of the curve” based on the crime trends it has seen in the past.

He said the two most common trends from last semester were bike-related crimes and “apple-picking”—a term coined for iPhones being snatched right out of people’s hands as they walked down the street.

“We’ve seen a huge increase in the number of bikes on campus,” Secka said. “Facility services has been installing more bike racks over the break … because the bike parking is so limited, and that’s a problem we’ve never seen before. So, along with that, we’ve seen an increase in bike thefts.”

Secka emphasized the need for awareness on students’ behalf in an effort to prevent “crimes of opportunity,” such as iPhone snatching.

“I can’t tell you how many times I walk around campus and people are just buried in their phones, texting or whatever it is that they’re doing,” Secka said. “That just makes you an easier target.”

SDSUPD will host a bike lock event at the beginning of spring semester when free U-locks will be distributed to students who register their bikes. The police department will also be releasing a bulletin regarding “apple-picking,” a nationwide issue for all iPhone users.