SAN DIEGO — The mother of a San Diego State student reached out to CBS 8 because she’s alarmed at the dangerous conditions in the College Area. She wrote a letter and sent it to state and city leaders, San Diego Police, and SDSU Police. She said the only entity she didn’t hear from is SDSU.
Susanne has a daughter who’s a junior at SDSU, another daughter is a recent graduate from the same school. Both daughters caught Peeping Toms at their off-campus houses.
“It’s rampant! If that’s happening in two different incidences like that and it showed up so quickly after we installed cameras, we believe that it is rampant. It’s not an isolated incident,” she said.
Susanne went to the Megan’s Law website and discovered 115 registered sex offenders within a two mile radius of campus. She found 537 in a five mile radius. There are locations where multiple offenders live in one house, she said. Their convictions include rape, sexual assault and indecent exposure after illegal entry. Many of them are rated as having an “above average” or “well above average” risk of committing a sexual crime again.
“It's inexcusable to me that the university is not taking more proactive measures knowing this is the environment the kids are living in every day," she said.
In her letter, she highlighted the high volume of convicted sexual offenders, that a majority of the street lights in the College Area are out and also that SDSU has not sent one alert to students about Peeping Toms.
“I cannot believe SDSU is the one entity that has not responded to me. And to me they have the most ability to educate the students and also help them with proactive measures” she said.
She said proactive measures include covering open windows, or even alerting students that the Peeping Toms are around in the first place.
“There’s all kinds of things they could educate them about," she said.
CBS 8 has stayed on the city about streetlights out in the college area since our team first reported the Peeping Tom story there last month. Today, CBS 8 obtained video from students who saw crews working on the lights. We found that 28 are now working again. CBS 8 emailed SDSU and shortly after Susanne got her reply.
They told her the College Area is off campus and not under SDSU’s jurisdiction.
San Diego State University Public Safety spokesperson Raquel Herriott said in a statement:
We relayed this information immediately to our colleagues with the City of San Diego Mayor’s Office and San Diego Police Department, as it is ultimately their jurisdiction. The San Diego State University Police Department (UPD) also provided a list of city lights that needed to be addressed to the Council President's office immediately following this email exchange, and they have been responsive, repairing or addressing more than two dozen of the identified lights already.
“While we cannot speak on behalf of the City of San Diego or SDPD, I hope this information will be helpful:
Regarding campus notifications, the San Diego State University Police Department issues timely warning crime bulletins for incidents that occur within the university’s jurisdiction and pose an ongoing threat to our campus community.
SDSU maintains a broad range of resources, programs and training, and other educational campaigns in support of individual and community safety. Last year, SDSU launched the SDSU Safe app. The app, available on both Apple and Android devices, is designed to address and promote personal safety both on and off campus. In addition to students, faculty and staff, community members are also able to download and use the app. The app provides campus safety alerts, via push notifications, as well as instant access to a range of university safety resources and reporting tools. Users can also report incidents as they occur, or as soon as they are safely able to do so – and they can do so anonymously. More information is online: https://newscenter.sdsu.edu/sdsu_newscenter/news_story.aspx?sid=78862
Susanne said she wants SDSU officials to be more proactive about the Peeping Toms and sexual offenders in the College Area.
“The only thing I can think is they don't want people to know," she said. "It's bad publicity for them so they are choosing that over the safety of their students. It's very upsetting. Please, these are our young vulnerable women students that are at our university and we entrust you with their care."
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