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Hot wheels roll off campus
Stolen bikes on rise but reported thefts well below CU-Boulder
By Geof Wollerman and David Pollan
gwollerm@mscd.edu • dpollan@mscd.edu

Photo by Jenn LeBlanc • jkerriga@mscd.edu Bicycle theft on campus has increased significantly since last year. Auraria police urge all students to properly lock their bicycles to the racks. U-locks are highly recommended by police for their durability and strength.

Despite a general rise in thefts from last year and a limited police force, the Auraria Campus still has far fewer criminal thefts than its northwest neighbor, the University of Colorado at Boulder.

As of Nov. 24, there were a reported 220 thefts on campus, compared to a total of 209 in 2005, according to Auraria police campus crime logs.

Among crimes classified by Auraria police as theft are shoplifting, any theft from a building or coin-operated machine and theft from motor vehicles or of motor-vehicle parts. All other acts of theft that take place outside of a building, such as a stolen bicycle or backpack, are classified in a subgroup called “all other larceny,” said John Egan, deputy chief of the Auraria police.

“Theft has always been the biggest problem down here on Auraria Campus,” Egan said. “The number of thefts will depend on the economy, the number of students we have down here, the number of people who leave their offices open … crime can go up or down depending on the semester.”

He attributed the rise in theft in part to the portable, compact nature of today’s technology, which is not only valuable, but also easy to steal.

While thefts this year made up 77 percent of all reported crimes on campus, stolen bicycles constituted 15 percent of all reported thefts. Currently, 34 bicycles have been stolen on campus this year, a number that is one more than the total number of thefts classified as “all other larceny” in 2005. A total of 50 “all other larceny” crimes had been reported as of Nov. 24.

“Bicycle theft has always been a big problem on campus, mainly because … believe it or not, it takes less than five seconds to cut a cable, get on a bike and get off campus,” Egan said.

Egan said he does not patrol the campus as much as in previous years, but he agreed that bicycle thefts are on the rise.

“I would say, yeah, bicycle thefts are up this year and car break-ins are down,” he said. “It’s easier to steal a bike, especially here where some of the bike racks are very near Speer Boulevard.”

Egan said Auraria police officers can only watch two or three bicycle racks at a time, making it more difficult to catch bike thieves. Egan also said it is hard to distinguish between students and thieves because students these days tend to dress down, whereas a few years ago, their clothing tended to distinguish them as students.

“Years ago students had a better dress code, and those that were stealing kind of stuck out,” Egan said. “But today, and with the crowds on the mall, (thieves) blend right in.”

Bike thieves have also grown more sophisticated, Egan said. He gave an example of a pair of bike thieves, one of whom was recently apprehended, who used two-way radios to steal bikes. One would look out for police and the other would steal the bike.

“These guys are pretty sharp,” he said. “And if you get one group arrested, another group takes over.”

In the face of these challenges, Auraria police oversee a campus that overall reports lower numbers of thefts than CU-Boulder, which sees roughly the same number of daily visitors and employs approximately the same number of officers on duty daily.

According to Brad Wiesley, public information officer for the CU-Boulder police department, this year CU-Boulder has reported 365 thefts thus far, including 115 bicycle thefts. But the on-campus housing provided by CU-Boulder contributes to these larger numbers, Wiesley said.

An estimated 9,000 to 10,000 people live on the CU-Boulder campus or within the campus police’s jurisdiction, Wiesley said. Because of this, CU-Boulder police deal with “typical things that come with residential living, not strictly campus incidents or things associated with student life.”
Auraria employs fewer total officers than CU-Boulder and polices three institutions.

According to Egan, on an average day anywhere from 39,000 to 43,000 people visit Auraria, making it difficult for officers to oversee everything. With only 20 sworn officers on staff, Egan urged all students and staff who witness crimes taking place to contact the police immediately. He mentioned that often people report crimes long after they have taken place, making them nearly impossible to solve.

“Our best defense is the public out there,” he said.

The students and faculty on campus can contribute significantly to the police’s ability to respond to reports of criminal behavior.

“We have 40,000 students. That’s 40,000 sets of eyes,” he said. “Don’t think about it, just call us.”
CU-Boulder employs just less than 40 officers, who police a daily campus population of 35,000 to 40,000. With almost double the number of officers, CU-Boulder maintains two to six officers on patrol at any given time. But despite the larger police force, in 2005 CU-Boulder reported 693 total crimes, compared to Auraria’s 303.