Annual Security Report

ANNUAL SECURITY REPORT

October 2008

Welcome from the Chief of Police

To All New and Returning Faculty, Staff and Students:

Welcome to the Ventura County Community College District and our campuses - Moorpark, Oxnard and Ventura Colleges!

The VCCCD Police Department, certified by the California Commission on Peace Officers Standards and Training (POST) provides law enforcement, crime investigation, security, and traffic/parking control for the students, faculty, staff and visitors of the VCCCD colleges and District. We are dedicated to providing a safe and secure environment for our population of over 38,000 at Moorpark, Oxnard and Ventura Colleges, as well as the East Campus in Santa Paula and the District Administration Center in Ventura. The campus police officers patrol the campuses on foot, on bicycle, by cart and by vehicle.

I would like to stress the need for us all to work together to maintain a safe environment for all. Through our combined efforts, we can reduce or mitigate not just crimes but hazardous situations or incidents-but we need your cooperation in reporting any incident, crime or suspicious activity as it occurs. Your safety is our first priority.

The Police Department is open from 5 am - 12 am Monday through Thursday, and until 11 pm Friday through Sunday. The various Campus Police Department phone numbers are:

Moorpark College - (805) 378-1455 (fax: 523-8499) Lt. Steve Kegley, supervisor

Oxnard College - (805) 986-5805 (fax: 488-6781) Sgt. Cesar Romero, supervisor

Ventura College - (805) 654-6486 (fax: 654-6386) Lt. Bob Escobedo, supervisor

In addition, the office of the Chief is always open for anyone with questions or concerns. The Chief may be reached at (805) 652-5532.

On behalf of our officers, our colleges, and the District, thank you for helping to make our campuses a safer place to learn and work!

Richard M. DeLaO

VCCCD Chief of Police

College Campuses Will Get Immediate Emergency Warnings Under New Higher Education Law Signed By President Bush

Colleges will now be required to "immediately notify" their students and staff upon confirmation of a significant emergency on campus, such as an active shooter situation, under higher education legislation signed into law Thursday by President George W. Bush. The move follows calls for faster action after shootings at several campuses across the country, including the deaths of 32 students and employees at Virginia Tech in 2007.

"Immediate notification of an emergency will empower students and employees to better be able to protect themselves and save lives," said Jonathan Kassa, the Executive Director of Security On Campus, Inc. a national non-profit organization that worked with both families of the Virginia Tech shooting victims and campus law enforcement to help develop the new warning provision.

This provision "will go a long way to make our nation's campuses and students safer and improve colleges' readiness and in the event of emergencies," added U.S. Representative Carolyn McCarthy (NY-4), one of the leading proponents of the measure in Congress. "Using both high and low tech means, many institutions across the country have already adopted this approach and are issuing campuswide emergency notifications."

The new provision, adopted as an amendment to the Jeanne Clery Act campus crime reporting law, also calls for colleges to test and publicize their emergency response and evacuation procedures once a year. Other campus safety measures in the new law include a federal matching grants program to fund campus emergency response and notification improvements, an expansion of the reporting of hate crime statistics, and new fire safety reporting requirements.

Security On Campus, Inc. (SOC) was founded in 1987 by Jeanne Clery's parents Connie & Howard after she was raped and murdered in her on-campus residence hall at college, by a fellow student whom she didn't know. SOC worked to secure passage of the Jeanne Clery Act, originally known as the Campus Security Act, in 1990 and continues to be the nation's leading voice for the improvement of campus safety. SOC is headquartered in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.

The VCCCD Police and District Information Technology Departments recently received District funding, and have been working together to provide the following safety components, which when in place, will comply with the above Clery requirements.

Mass Notification System – Will enable the campuses to advise students, faculty and staff of an existing emergency via voice mail or text messages on handheld devices. This will require a voluntary sign-up by staff, faculty and students. We urge you to sign up, and ask that you encourage others to do so as well. Additional information and training will be available in the near future.

Campus Blue Phones-Will enable quick reporting of emergencies and rapid police response and are currently located throughout each campus.

Internal 9-1-1-Will provide police and fire the ability to respond to specific locations, in case of emergency.

Other components of this project include upgrade of existing emergency communications, campus surveillance systems, and sirens/speaker capability.

More information will follow as we progress on this project.

Last Updated 10/1/08