With summer classes just over the horizon, sheriffs will prepare to try and renew their contract with Pierce College, so they can continue to serve the school for the following semesters.
According to Senior Lead Deputy Ron Nohles, crime is significantly down from semesters past.
“I think its down considerably … thefts out of the book store are down and thefts out of the room are down,” said Nohles. Robbery’s only occurred once in the months of February and March.
In addition grand theft crimes are down this semester with only one of these incidents occurring in March, but the campus has seen its share of small petty theft crimes six incidents occurring in February and March.
“I thought crime would increase because of the economy,” Nohles said. “Usually when the economy starts to slow down people are getting laid off, so they have to decide between breaking into a car and steal a car stereo for $50 to put food on the table.”
Also the number of sheriffs on campus will not change for the summer as the same number sheriffs are employed no matter what semester it is. However, there are questions whether or not the school should renew its contract with the campus sheriff.
“Do I think so, yeah I think so,” said Nohles on the renewal of their contract. “For the amount of money that they pay they get a lot of services that if they had their own police department they would have to pay extra.”
Some of these free services that the school gets because it has a contract with the Los Angeles County Sheriff are the bomb squad, hazardous material squad, Sheriffs canine unit, aero bureau, swat team, and gang enforcement.
“It is an ongoing contract,” said Larry Kraus Associate Vice President, but Kraus was not able to add much more to his comment.