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Creating a safer UC Berkeley

Enough is enough. It’s time to make Cal safe for students.

We are 1,500+ Cal parents and community allies working to improve safety for UC Berkeley students through strategic planning, advocacy, and outreach to campus administration, student organizations, local law enforcement, city government, and safety experts at universities across the country. SafeBears is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Our new billboard is up through July ‘24 on University Avenue one block west of Trader Joe’s!

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Thank you for making the SafeBears Private Security Pilot a Success!

Check out coverage by ABC, CBS, NBC, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Daily Cal and more!

Make UC Berkeley Safer Right Now

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  • ✅ Email your safety concerns to Cal administrators using this contact info. (Personalized messages, however short, make a huge impact.)

    ✅ The survey period for the UC Berkeley Chancellor search is closed. Thank you to everyone who requested a new chancellor who will prioritize student safety! SafeBears looks forward to working with the new chancellor, Rich Lyons, who takes office July 1, 2024.

  • ✅ If your Bear has experienced crime directly and you are willing to share your story, email us at contact@safebears.org. 

    ✅ Sign up for our email updates and join our Facebook community. And we always welcome questions, ideas and offers of help at contact@safebears.org or via DM in the Facebook SafeBears group.

  • Donate here. Thank you for your support!

SafeBears 2023 - 2024 Safety Year in Review

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Pardon our dust — content update in progress

  • After our members contributed $40,000 in less than a month, the SafeBears Private Security Pilot Program ran March 6 - 23, 2024. Highlights include:

  • SafeBears’ advocacy contributed to the return of important university provided safety measures that had fallen off during the pandemic:

    Read our overview of residence hall security.

    Student RSA and CSO staffing tends to fall off over the summer. SafeBears will be monitoring the numbers closely to help ensure adequate coverage when the ‘24-’25 academic year begins.

  • In February 2023 Yogananda Pittman took the helm of the UC Berkeley police department, having previously served as interim chief of the U.S. Capitol Police. Chief Pittman immediately took decisive action to improve UCPD’s ability to keep Cal students safe, including:

    • Hiring 10 new police officers – 47 sworn officers are on duty, with an additional 4 trainees in the police academy (as of Jan ‘24), and the department continues to hire

    • Revitalizing UC Berkeley’s project to create a new non sworn safety position

    • Recruiting more students to the Community Service Organization — as of May ‘24 there are 90 CSOs who patrol campus and university property and provide the SafeWalk walking escort, compared with just 45 CSOs in Aug. ‘23

    While progress is being made, unfortunately UCPD is still short staffed – and building the department back will take time. To put this in context, about a decade ago UCPD had 80 sworn officers.

    In addition, the city of Berkeley police department is in the midst of a staffing crisis, with 30+ current vacancies. “BPD is authorized to hire 181 officers but has had closer to 125 officers available for full duty over the past year due to injuries, training and leave,” reports The Berkeley Scanner.

    SafeBears will continue to support both departments and advocate for more funding, more hiring, and more crime-fighting tools (like automated license plate readers).

  • In March 2024 UC Berkeley established a Student Safety Fund, due in part to SafeBears’ advocacy. Student leadership is fine tuning the fund’s priorities, so be on the lookout for an update on how donated funds will be used to enhance student safety.

  • Cal students got a lot safer in January 2024 due to the administration's bold action in taking control of People’s Park. UC Berkeley now awaits a court ruling to build much needed housing for students and low income people.

    SafeBears had an opportunity to see the newly walled-off block and was struck by the dramatic transformation of the entire neighborhood: families pushing strollers, young people jogging, and other signs of life that simply weren’t there before the university took action.

  • In the summer of 2023, Cal parents showed up in large numbers at Berkeley city council meetings to lobby for safety improvements, helping to propel:

    • Approval of cameras and automated license plate readers

    • Appointment of permanent chief of police

    • Signing bonuses for new police officers

    SafeBears members also spoke before the UC regents, wrote emails and made phone calls to UC Berkeley administrators, and urged the hiring of a safety-minded new chancellor.

    SafeBears leadership engaged with university and community leaders — meeting with Vice Chancellors, ASUC representatives, UC Police Department, UC Systemwide Director of Community Safety, and Business Process Management Office, among others. Topics discussed included Residential & Student Service Programs, Student Affairs, Clery Compliance, WarnMe Notification System, Title IX, Campus Lighting and Blue Light Emergency Phones.

  • For months SafeBears has been sounding the alarm about problems with UC Berkeley’s WarnMe system, which has consistently failed to issue timely, accurate and informative text and email safety alerts to the community. In the summer and fall of 2023, we met with campus administration, educated our members, and spoke with CalTV.

    The February 2024 shooting on Sproul Plaza proved our point – while fortunately no one was hurt and UCPD arrested the shooter within minutes, UC Berkeley did not issue a WarnMe email until 40 minutes after the incident. Meanwhile, uncertainty, and even chaos, reigned, as students learned about the shooting from friends or social media and had no idea if the shooter had acted alone or been captured. Many students and others sheltered in place either on their own initiative or after being told to do so by disparate campus authority figures. When the WarnMe email did finally arrive, it described the incident only as an “aggravated assault,” and failed to mention that the perpetrator had been arrested. It wasn’t until 9:50pm, 80 minutes after the shooting, that a second WarnMe email gave the all clear.

    After the Sproul gunfire, UC Berkeley said it would “take a closer look at our WarnMe protocols including messaging and expanding the list of campus officials with access to the emergency system.” SafeBears will be monitoring this closely.

Our Priorities

  • Visible security presence

    Cal must get serious about crime and public disorder on and near campus. Due to a shortage of UCPD sworn officers that will take years to remedy, we are working to increase the visible security presence immediately with non-sworn personnel, such as private security, a reserve officer program, and more student and full-time UCPD non-sworn officers.

  • Fences around student housing

    Intruders continue to enter residence halls with distressing frequency. We are advocating for security fencing as part of a multi-pronged strategy to keep students safe in their university-provided homes.

  • Expanded hours for dorm security

    Residence hall security has improved with more student lobby monitors and student service officers on the job after dark. ✅ We are still pressing for expanded coverage, as experience shows that not all trespasses occur at night.

  • Safety ambassadors

    While we are currently focused on getting more boots on the ground to provide a visible security presence, we continue to advocate for a permanent program of full-time safety ambassadors modeled after the USC “yellow jackets.”

  • Discounted rideshares after dark

    Discounted rideshares after dark is a popular student request. We agree that Cal should adopt this commonsense measure already in place at schools like UC San Diego and USC.

  • Better use of security cameras

    Cal’s video camera footage is only reviewed after a crime occurs. We want more cameras around campus with realtime monitoring to stop crime before it happens, particularly at the entrances to student housing.

  • A dedicated security fund ✅

    Great news! In March ‘24 UC Berkeley established a Student Safety Fund, due in part to SafeBears’ advocacy. Student leadership is fine tuning the fund’s priorities, so be on the lookout for an update soon.

  • Better lighting where students live

    We are asking UC Berkeley to conduct a comprehensive lighting study, as many campus areas and university properties are dangerously dark at night. We also want a better system to quickly identify and fix broken lights.

  • Safety training for students

    Cal must do more to train students on how to keep safe, not just during freshman year but throughout their college experience. All too often, students do not receive or absorb fundamental knowledge, such as whether they can call 911 on campus property. (YES!)

Read our Fall Update

“All members of the UC community should feel valued, welcomed and free from any threat of physical, psychological or emotional harm.”

— UC Community Safety Plan, Guideline 1

 FAQs

  • Since August 2022, there has been a significant increase in violent crime in and around UC Berkeley, including—

    • multiple shootings within feet of University housing resulting in one death

    • multiple students have been robbed with semi-automatic rifles

    • a student was stabbed while walking on Bancroft Avenue

    • intruders have repeatedly gained access to student housing

    —and more.

    In March 2023, Berkeley Police Chief Jen Louis reported that the overall number of violent and property crimes in 2022 was at a 10-year high. Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin describes crime around UC Berkeley as “extremely concerning and troubling.”

    Crimes rates continue to climb. As of October 2023, robberies, increasingly via gun, are up 22 % compared to the same period last year.

    Students are even voicing their concerns to the media, saying UC Berkeley is “definitely less safe than other campuses.”

    For more information on crime at Cal and the status of our work to make Cal safer, see our Fall ‘23 Update.

  • Part of what we do is hold UC Berkeley accountable for the safety promises it has made to students and their families — promises that too often have been broken. In the ‘22-’23 academic year, UC Berkeley was failing to provide basic safety programs found at most large universities — such as reliable nighttime shuttles and dormitory lobby monitors. Due in part to our advocacy, all three night safety shuttles are now in service, and student residence halls are better protected after dark with lobby monitors and/or roaming foot patrols.

    We are in close contact with campus administration, meeting and emailing with staff regularly to gather information and monitor developments. We also study safety best practices at other universities and advocate for additional safety programs at Cal — like discounted rideshares and security fencing around student housing.

    We have found that, unfortunately, UC Berkeley does not have an administrator with overall responsibility for campus safety. The university’s safety infrastructure is fragmented among multiple departments, each with many other, non-safety responsibilities. This makes it difficult for student safety to be the priority that it should be.

    Above all, we are your voice for student safety at UC Berkeley. But we can’t do it without you.

    Join Us!

    Have a question or want to help? Contact us here.

    • Ensuring UCPD is fully staffed and supported by the University

    • Implementing private security patrols until UCPD staffing crisis is solved

    • Building secured access around all student dormitories to stop intruders from gaining access

    • Expanding coverage hours for dorm security personnel

    • Discounted ridesharing options for students, akin to UC San Diego

    • Creating a dedicated fund where donors can support safety improvements in & around campus

    • Improving the WarnMe alert system — so that alerts arrive more quickly & with more information

    • Better lighting on and around campus

    • Realtime monitoring of security cameras in sensitive areas such as dorm entrances

    • Better student safety training throughout their college experience

    • Creating a permanent program of full-time safety ambassadors on and around campus

    For more information on crime at Cal and the status of our work, see our Fall ‘23 Safety Update.

    Get all of our latest updates here.

  • We are parents of current and recent UC Berkeley students who are working together to make Cal safer. We are a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. We’re holding UC administrators and members of local government accountable to making the changes we need.

    We work with a variety of partners within the University, UCPD, local businesses, and parent safety organizations at other universities around the country.

    Click for our Fall ‘23 Safety Update.

    Click for all of our latest updates.

  • While we are primarily a parent organization, we do welcome Cal affiliates as well as members of the greater Berkeley community who are interested in improving safety at UC Berkeley and in the city as a whole. We often engage with allies who are not Cal parents. To work on our specific safety measures, however, we will generally require you to be a parent or guardian of a current or recent UC Berkeley student.

    Join Us!

    Whether you are a Cal parent, a Cal affiliate or alum, or a member of the community who is affected by rising crime in Berkeley, we would love to hear from you. Get in touch with us here.

  • We would love to hear from you! Contact us here.

Join us!

Together we can make UC Berkeley safer for students.

Our Partners