USC Hires Security Company To Help Partol Area

After a year in which the area around the University of Southern California saw an increase in violent crimes, the university contracted a security force to help patrol the streets surrounding the campus.

The security company called Contemporary Services Corporation, or CSC for short, was hired to help patrol the area. Nevertheless the security officers are not there to prevent crime but rather to alert the USC Department of Public Safety or the Los Angeles Police Department if there is a problem. Moreover DPS is hopeful that the mere presence of the CSC security guards will help make the area safer.

Overall there are 22 CSC security guards stationed in the area north of campus from noon until 4 a.m., seven days a week. In the first month of school there were no major violent crimes; however, there was one armed robbery at a time when CSC was off-duty.

The hiring of CSC came in the wake of a school year in which the USC community was subject to a number of violent crimes including a fatal stabbing, a fatal hit-and-run, and a number of sexual assaults. Part of this is attributed to the general conception that the area surrounding USC is not safe and some streets near residential areas are not well lit.

Many USC students have already felt a difference with the installment of the CSC security guards in the area. Some students have expressed that it feels much safer to get around, especially at night.

“It’s good that they are situated everywhere,” said USC junior Samantha Fok. “And if anything were to happen they are like the first people we can run to, or possibly be the ones who witness the incident.”

Others are skeptical, however, and feel that the CSC presence does not actually make the area any safer. One of the main gripes is that the CSC security guards can not actually do anything to prevent crimes from happening.

“I get the whole bright yellow jackets thing, but honestly, why are we even wasting our money on them?” said USC sophomore Sophia Yoo. “They just stand there and stare at you while you lock up your bike. I just honestly feel bad for them, wasting their time standing there.”

While it is true that the CSC security guards cannot act on any criminal behavior they see, they come at a much cheaper cost than if the university were to hire more DPS officers. That coupled with the fact that USC has a hiring freeze over the next couple years, the only solution to have a bigger presence around campus was to hire an outside security firm.

Despite the criticism, university officials are confident that at the very least the increased presence of security will help prevent crimes as well as put students at ease. DPS is quick to point out that overall crime is down over the past three years, and the presence of the CSC security guards should help to continue that trend. Moreover, USC has taken other measures over the past years to help make the surrounding area safer such as building more university-owned property around the campus.