After a stabbing in the fall semester, and a recent attempted kidnapping, Ventura College expands its police presence by opening a sub-station in the Learning Resource Center on Jan 6, 2006.
Growing reports of unsolved crime at Ventura indicated to the VCCCD Chief of Police James Botting that something needed to be done to reduce the problem.
“Ventura College has the most calls for service of all three campuses because Ventura is a large city with a large population density.” Chief Botting said. “Law enforcement cannot be efficiently provided from just one location on campus.”
Botting explained that the main police office is ideally located near the busy quad and main parking lots. However, the opposite side of campus has become a new center of student congregation. With the new sub-station situated inside the building, police can be present on either side of campus at all times.
Concern regarding Ventura’s limited law enforcement presence escalated on Nov. 3, when two men from Santa Paula stabbed Ventura student Gabriel Vargas in the LRC’s second floor men’s restroom. Library workers summoned police as soon as possible, but by the time officers arrived, the suspects had fled from the area. Although the suspects were arrested off-campus later on, police say that a sub-station in the building could have provided a much quicker response, or prevented the incident from occurring at all.
The police consider the stabbing incident to have been related to gangs in Fillmore and Santa Paula. It was the first gang-related incident that police have seen on Ventura Campus. Because of this, Botting said that the Ventura campus police are reviewing policies and regulations used by the Oxnard police, who have managed to keep the large gang-influence around campus away from the college.
The main campus police office at Ventura College is located at the corner of Central Campus Way, and Pirate Way. The sub-station is run from the first floor of the LRC. For questions about the new sub-station, contact the Ventura College campus police at (805) 654-6486, or visit the VCCCD website at http://www.vcccd.net/police.
