This February, I had the opportunity to sit in on a Restorative Justice class offered by the UCSB Police Department & SB County Sheriff's Department and hear all about how policing works in Isla Vista (lucky me). Long story short, my house got a ticket for playing music past the noise ordinance. I know, rookie mistake. Luckily, the police department (in collaboration with UCSB Life of the Party) allows students in Isla Vista who have received certain drinking/ noise related citations to have their tickets dismissed on the condition that they attend one of these classes. It turned out to be a very informative and enjoyable session. Even though I’ve only lived in Isla Vista for 3 years, I care deeply for the community and its future. Now, I’d like to share some of the things I learned from this class along with some problems I recognized with the information that was shared.
Two main characteristics of IV that the presentation centered on were the implementation of a community policing model, and the application of broken windows policing. Here are some quick definitions:
Community Policing: Part PR stunt, part legitimate strategy; community policing is a philosophy to promote relationships between cops and the communities they serve in hopes that problems can be solved in a collaborative manner. It essentially gives a voice to the community to express what they want out of their police department. This is undeniably good in principal; and to their credit, the UCSB PD offers a TON of community outreach programs. The restorative justice class itself is one such program. Also, the Isla Vista Foot Patrol, which is staffed by officers from both UCPD and the Sheriff's Department, was one of the first community policing stations in California. Pretty neat.
Broken Windows Policing: Based on the “Broken Windows” theory proposed in the 80’s, this method of law enforcement centers on the idea that if you curb minor crimes, major crimes are less likely to occur. The name comes from an imagined scenario in which criminals who see buildings with broken windows would perceive that the law isn’t strictly enforced in that area and would thus believe they could get away with other crimes. Basically, DO sweat the small stuff and there will be less big stuff to worry about. This concept led to the infamous “stop and frisk” practice in New York City, and is also the reason why you will get stopped by the cops if you take a seat on the curb in IV. Their ultimate goal is to prevent more serious crime.
The officers leading the presentation also stressed the unique challenges that Isla Vista faces. Anyone who’s spent time in our debaucherous little town knows that it lives up to its reputation on any given Friday night. Out of towners come in all the time with the perception that it's some lawless place. The main stat that the presenters kept repeating was that, “Santa Barbara County is 2,738 Sq. Miles; I.V. is less than 2 square miles but is responsible for 25% of all Part 1 crimes (kidnapping, robbery, battery, assault w/deadly weapon, rape, burglary, grand theft, etc.)”. Understandably, 5-0 isn’t too fond of this factoid. After the riots and tragedy of 2014, the police ramped up broken windows policing efforts by punishing more alcohol related crimes while striving to maintain their community policing model.
I do have to compliment the police for wanting to explain the way they operate. The fact that they offer this program at all shows that they’re not just out to fine people and ruin their fun. In fact, they emphasized throughout the session that they want students to be able to have maximum fun while doing it safely. Not for nothing, the majority of IV residents live here for 4 years tops. Many officers have been around longer, but they still stress that it is the student’s community. At the end of the lecture, they also reserved time for us to voice some of our own concerns.
I left the class feeling very positive about the cops in IV. So what if I can’t sit on a curb? At least I know somebody is there to protect the little beach town I love. I’ve witnessed tons of crime in IV, both in person and via Facebook. Freshman year, I saw a drunk white guy walk down DP and punch out the sideview mirrors of 3 cars parked one after another. My roommate’s bike was stolen, TWICE! And we all know about the rampant sexual assault cases that ruin the lives of many students every year. I’m all for making Isla Vista safer, but… there are a few details about IV’s police culture that the presentation didn’t do justice (see what I did there).
First, the presentation made the claim that the number of violent crimes has been cut by almost 2/3 of what it was in 2014. It also cited a 2015 study:
These numbers are staggering, but I couldn’t find this information anywhere online. I seriously doubt they would make up data, and I believe them when they say that crime has gone down since 2014. It’s just frustrating that UCSB is a top research university and our police don’t cite their sources.
Here’s where I did find data, but it doesn’t quite match:
https://www.police.ucsb.edu/files/docs/2019_Annual_Security_Report.pdf (page 131)
https://www.countyofsb.org/da/msm_county/documents/IVSafeReport.pdf (page 28)
Second, broken windows policing sounded genius in the way the officers described it. However, there are many well documented problems with its use. Mainly, under broken windows policing, the cops can get away with harassment because they get to decide who to accost for posing a potential threat to the community. You can probably see where racial profiling comes into play. My roommate, who is African American, has a story of walking through IV at night and being stopped by the police who asked him to reveal the contents of his backpack. He complied but that is not something the police can lawfully force someone to do – I know this because the cops in the presentation said so. This sort of behavior is extremely detrimental to the relationship between cops and students, most of whom are minorities at UCSB. In this way, broken windows policing can work directly counter to community policing.
Finally, this:
https://www.independent.com/2019/05/09/whistleblower-lawsuits-blow-lid-off-ucsb-police/
Holy Internal Affairs Batman! I have nothing to say about these allegations other than the fact that sexual misconduct and racism are two issues that the student community is VERY passionate about. For UCPD to let these things go on for so long shows that they do not share our values and thus the notion of a community policing model being used in IV has been a bald-faced lie. Thank goodness for the whistleblowers.
(Note: The cops who patrol IV come from both UCPD and the Sheriff’s Department. These scandals involve the UCPD)
So, where do we go from here? Can Isla Vista go on without police? Remember that this blog is my opinion, especially this part: Hells no, we need cops. But we need to get far better at policing the police.
To the police: There should be much more transparency and better reporting of annual crime statistics for mass consumption. Post it on your Instagram for heck’s sake, I’d throw it a like. We should also know who the cops patrolling IV are and which ones have been reprimanded before.
If you really want community policing, there should be zero tolerance within your department for sexual misconduct and racism. Are you really listening to the community like you say you are? Please demonstrate a commitment to the issues we care about. Show us why we should trust you after these horrible scandals.
If you really want broken windows policing, we need heightened police visibility rather than stop and frisk style harassment. There is evidence that having more cops present in a community reduces crime. But you must punish cops for stepping over the line. Take complaints seriously.
Finally, to the students: It’s up to you to keep the pressure on the police to do better. Be in the know. We all want to have a good time but none of us want to get robbed, so it’s in our best interest to have a good relationship with the police so that they may attend to our needs.
