Car theft is one of the most frequently committed felonies at Cal State Long Beach, according to the university’s CLERY Report on Crime Statistics; however, parking structures are the most targeted locations on campus and have the least amount of surveillance cameras.

Currently, no cameras are monitoring parking structures two or three.

Coverage of parking structure one is limited to external cameras monitoring the three entrances at a downward angle.

For those in physical harm, several emergency telephones connected directly to police dispatch are located on each level of every structure, indicated by a blue light.

University Police Sergeant Keith Caires said that there’s more than one finite reason for these blind spots.

“There’s enough churn,” Caires said, in reference to the campus’ ongoing foot traffic from the estimated 30,000 students, 6,000 faculty, staff, and employees last fall.

Caires said that the consistent arrival and departure flow of people on campus is prevalent since everyone is on their own schedule, leaving him and his patrol officers some peace of mind knowing that there aren’t a lot of opportunities to be caught completely alone on campus.

“We have a safer community than other surrounding areas,” Caires said.

Caires said that the heart the problem of parking structure surveillance boils down to one thing: money.

Taking into consideration all angles and levels required for adequate coverage of a parking structure and the manpower to properly monitor cameras, Caires said that budgeting becomes the bigger issue.

Currently, CSULB?s security system is not monitored around the clock due to lack of funding for labor, however, a dispatcher is set to monitor campus activity 12 hours every academic day, year-round, Caires said.