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University Village apartment crimes prompt calls for increased security

By Sam Hoff

Sept. 28, 2014 12:00 a.m.

In response to a series of crimes near their homes, a group of students living in a UCLA apartment complex south of Wilshire Boulevard are asking officials to increase security measures and to consider forming a neighborhood watch.

The University Village houses thousands of UCLA graduate and professional students on two strips of land south of National Boulevard, adjacent to the 405 Freeway – one complex on each side of the freeway. For years, university police have assigned an officer to patrol the complex, though the officer is also assigned to oversee other nearby UCLA-owned housing sites.

“I don’t want to say it’s crime-ridden, but it’s an area where the (residents) can be really helpful in preventing crime,” said UCPD spokeswoman Nancy Greenstein.

Boback Ziaeian, a cardiology fellow and graduate student at the Fielding School of Public Health, said his father was robbed by a man with a handgun on Sept. 3 when he was walking along the sidewalk to visit Ziaeian at the housing complex.

The man stole $85 from Ziaeian’s father and he escaped unharmed.

Ziaeian said that when officers came to his apartment that day to take a report of the armed robbery, they told him a series of similar armed robberies by a man with a handgun had taken place about six months prior to the incident.

Ziaeian said he now worries for his wife, who typically parks outside of the gated complex near where his father parked.

“Apartments being robbed is not a rare event (at University Village),” Ziaeian said. “It seems worthy that the university should be proactive about protecting the people that live here.”

The day before, UCPD responded to an attempted burglary in the early afternoon.

According to a police alert, an unknown person attempted to force open a locked student apartment using a pry tool. The student was inside, and yelled through the door before the person ran away.

Then on Monday, police arrested 28-year-old Justin James of Los Angeles after a UCPD officer saw him prowling in a parking garage on the Sepulveda Boulevard side of the University Village.

Officers detained James and verified with apartment officials that he did not live in the complex, Greenstein said in an email statement. When James was taken into custody for prowling, officers found he was carrying meth and booked him for a felony drug charge.

James was previously sentenced to several months in jail in January after Santa Monica police arrested him, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department records. He was released in early August.

At the Sept. 17 meeting of the University Apartments South Residents Association, some residents asked UCPD Sgt. Karen Gentilucci if it would be reasonable to add a second officer to patrol the complex. Gentilucci said the officer currently assigned to the complex devotes more of his time to parts of the complex that have recently had high crime levels.

“When we’re made aware of a crime trend or a crime problem, we’re trained to use our resources to get it,” she said.

Gentilucci added that it is unlikely that UCPD will assign a second full-time officer to the area because they have to patrol other places, such as campus and the North Village, and have limited staff.

Howard Chung, a fifth-year study of religion student who lives in the complex, has encouraged residents of the complex to report crimes to police, hoping it will alert the university​ to increase security measures.

Chung said he has spoken to other residents who were victims of crimes in the area and did not report ​​​incidents, such as thefts and burglaries, to police. He said he thinks residents should notify police if they have been a victim of a crime, and should not expect apartment management to make police reports.

“We need to change th​e cost-benefit analysis​ when it comes to deciding whether to protect life and property or to save money​,” Chung said. “We need to change that formula, and make it a low probability of getting away by having security cameras or signs like neighborhood watch signs.”

Greenstein said she has met with Chung to discuss setting up a neighborhood watch system in the University Village.

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Sam Hoff | Alumnus
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