The Way We Live Now (at Berkeley) – Part 3 (final?)

We have been noting on this blog the efforts of some UC-Berkeley parents to pressure the campus administration to add more security. The parents hired private guards for a short period to pressure the university into doing more. The LA Times reports on the now-concluded episode:

...The program ran from March 6 to 23 and was formed in response to what SafeBears organizers see as an inadequate response from the university to a growing crime problem in and around the school. The parent group paid roughly $42,000 for six unarmed guards to patrol around the student housing and south of the campus. “There were some requests for service, escorts or directions. But really the No. 1 service these guys provided was just their physical presence being a deterrent to crime,” said SafeBears founder Sagar Jethani, who is a Southern California resident and father to two UC Berkeley students...

University officials say they believe the parents’ funds would be better spent hiring more sworn and non-sworn police officers, a UC Berkeley spokesperson said in a statement. “Parents who want to donate funds toward additional campus security can do so via a university fund that has been established,” the statement said. “We do not believe that private security should take precedence over hiring sworn officers.”

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-03-27/uc-berkeley-parents-hired-private-security-fearing-for-their-kids.