The LAPD will add extra police patrols around the USC campus in the wake of a recent spike in crime near the school, officials said at a Thursday press conference.
LA officials said they would add four additional officers to patrol near USC and 30 officers to the Southwest Division. They will add a detective and a neighborhood prosecutor. USC will also add more campus cruisers to escort students at night and will work with the LAPD and the Mayor's Office to share crime data.
The money will come from university funds. An estimate was not immediately available.
"This is a significant investment to ensure (the university) will do anything and everything to make sure students are safe," Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said.
LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said officers will work with school officials to identify additional sites around campus where additional surveillance cameras could be located.
“Just because we have a general decrease in crime does not mean that we shouldn’t address this public safety issue in and around SC,” Beck said.
The news comes two weeks after two USC grad students were shot to death by an unknown assailant as the students sat in a car near the campus and a week after an armed robbery that prompted police to expedite ballistics testing in the hope of finding clues to the earlier shooting.
A $125,000 reward was being offered for information leading to the person or people responsible for killing Ying Wu and Ming Qu on April 11 in the 2700 block of Raymond Avenue near West 27th Street in the West Adams area.
A week later, a campus safety officer shot a robbery suspect after he allegedly stole a backpack and other items from USC students Wednesday near 30th Street and Shrine Place. The suspect was taken into custody with non-life threatening injuries.
USC officials said they have added security cameras, have stepped up security and that crime in the area has dropped in recent years.
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