Every year there are rising reports of crime on campus at Sonoma State University. While the campus police department claims they have taken measures to ensure student safety, there are still many students at SSU who do not feel safe on campus.
Jasmine Haas, a second year theater major at Sonoma State, stated, “[The police] don’t notice what goes on in the dorms or around campus because they can’t. I never see any campus security walking around campus…”
Haas referenced a data report from redding.com, “For example, burglary is a huge issue on campus. In the 2019-2020 school year, lots of people stole each other’s hydroflasks and this was a problem. There’s also been a lot of burglaries on the first floor of the dorms because the windows are left open.”
Police Chief Nader Oweis, who was not chief at Sonoma State during that time, says he never heard anything about those specific thefts. He did comment, “My officers are on foot all the time. They are asked (when they are not busy) to be walking around campus and observe what is going on. I do not want anyone to think they are not doing it, especially at night. We do have two bicycles, and while no officers are using them right now, there is a plan to get police on bikes soon.”
Ronnie Lopez-Bazan, a math major from Sonoma State University, shared one experience they had with the Sonoma State Police Department. “There was this one night, right before this Fall semester began, I was walking my dog, my friends were skating, and we were hanging around GMC. There was a cop car that wouldn’t stop circling us. We got the message that we should probably leave, even though we were on public property causing no harm to anyone…”
Lopez-Bazan continued, “As we’re leaving, my friend and I see the bright headlights shining from behind us…I didn’t think we were taking up so much space, so it confused me why this officer couldn’t just pass us and be on his way.”
“I just froze because I didn’t know what to do. [The officer] began questioning me and I was feeling a lot of emotions. One of the strongest emotions was disappointment. Disappointed that this police officer couldn’t recognize SSU students in front of him and one of them being the Face of SSU, the latter being me. With my banner in the parking lot in front of Ives, I was still questioned and felt unsafe at the very institution I paid to attend.”
“I tried reporting him since I wasn’t the only one who felt uneasy after the encounter… I sometimes wish I never walked my dog because after that I contemplated coming back to this school, and unfortunately, I still do. I understand there are ‘good cops’ out there and I’m thankful that all I got was questioned, but it’s hard to see the good when all you can see is the harm, trauma, and systemic oppression that is so strongly affiliated with the police.”
Izaac Limon, a recently graduated Sonoma State alumni, stated, “[Police Chief Oweis] was interviewed last spring semester about the assaults on campus and the poor lighting at night. He claimed that SSU was sufficiently lit at night. But, safety on campus has always been an issue for such a tiny school.”
In an interview with the STAR, Chief Oweis responded, “I think we have lots of lighting on campus.” He went on to explain that he believes the issues to be in maintenance, including trimming trees back, keeping the electrics working, and keeping cobwebs or anything else that might dim or constrict lighting under control. Chief Oweis said that he has staff members checking in on anything that might interfere with safety on campus and that includes light maintenance, “This is…where I need the community to come forward and tell the Police Department about what is happening around campus,”
According to Police Chief Oweis, there are also 36 emergency police contact buttons across campus. This past summer, the department did an assessment to make sure they were all working and took steps to fix the ones that were not. In the next couple of weeks, the Chief says he plans on having interns go check to make sure they are all working again. He has set a goal to check on the buttons a couple of times each semester. Chief Oweis added, however, that he believes calling or texting 9-1-1 in a timely manner may be a faster way to reach the department. “We can’t do our jobs if we don’t know about it,” he emphasized.
According to the report on crime statistics at Sonoma State University on redding.com, Sonoma State’s crime rankings in the year of 2018 included 14 rape cases and 9 burglaries and (added up along with other statistics) placed SSU at 27th in the state and 233rd in the nation when compared to other university’s crime statistics. One year later in 2019, crime rates increased drastically, with Sonoma State having 17 cases of rape and 28 cases of burglary. Sonoma State jumped from 27th to 15th in the state in just one year.
Chief Oweis addressed the rise in the numbers of burglaries, rape, and dating violence cases, “In 2019, there was a series of burglaries done by individuals who were arrested and that is why you may see an increase in burglaries on campus for that year.” Oweis also stated, “I think people have felt comfortable coming forward to report domestic violence and rape cases. There was obviously an increase in cases that year and I assume we wouldn’t see that unless someone reported it.”
Oweis continued, “The university as a whole has brought about a lot of awareness around reporting not just domestic violence and rape cases, but all crime. If we don’t know about it then we can’t warn the community about what is going on. The Police Department is small, comparatively, and this is where the department relies on the community at Sonoma State University to be its eyes and ears.”
Nader Oweis was welcomed to the Police Department at Sonoma State University as the new Chief of Police in December of 2020. According to a Sonoma.edu news article, Oweis, a Sonoma County local, joined the Seawolves with 26 years of previous campus law experience.
According to a report on cbs.com, “Prior to his position at UC Santa Cruz, Oweis served with the UC Davis Police Department, first as a student employee and later as a lieutenant. He was also recently selected as the University of California (UC) Coordinator of Police Services, which has him coordinating the Council of Police Chiefs, a governing body comprising chiefs at the UC’s 10 campuses.”
When he was first sworn in, Chief Oweis had a ‘100-day plan’ in which he went out and walked around campus, trying to meet as many people as possible. Additionally, in August of 2021, about six months into his time at Sonoma State, Chief Oweis introduced a program he had developed called ‘Meet the Chief’, which he hoped would strengthen his relationship with the community on campus. According to Oweis, “This program has three features: [it] allows anyone to set up an appointment to meet me one on one via Zoom, on a walk, for coffee, or in the office; [it] encourages you to invite me to events, special gatherings, organization meetings, neighborhood associations, department or division meetings to answer questions or to provide training and education either via Zoom or in person; and lastly, [it] provides me an opportunity to meet with various community members in person to spotlight their programs in monthly videos.”
When asked about the success of the ‘Meet the Chief’ program, Chief Oweis explained that he had had lots of success with faculty and other individuals reaching out to him. “I’ve met a lot of students and been able to have good conversations with them. This is what I’ve done my entire career… I’ve done this prior to coming to SSU in other positions, including at UCSC,” Oweis explained.
Oweis has gotten involved with the community in many other ways as well. He has worked to increase the conversation between police and students by co-creating the ‘Black and Brown in Blue event’, which is a series of guest speakers sharing information about their time in professional law enforcement. Oweis also says that they have a line up ready for next semester, and he and his partner in this, Doc Sawyer, plan on continuing the series. According to a Sonoma State Social Sciences article, Chief Oweis and Dr. Sawyer “organized this speaker series…with the goal of opening the lens to a more engaging and introspective look at Black and Brown body people living, working, and serving while in blue.”
Conversations between police and students are the best way to go about creating a strong relationship between all members of the Sonoma State University community and the Chief has been taking steps, as promised, to create a safe space to have those conversations. It seems, however, that not every student at Sonoma State has heard about these programs and that there are still students who do not feel safe in the presence of campus security. Lopez-Bazan told the STAR, “Bottom line: The [police] don’t make me feel safe and they never did. We have a saying in social activist groups: ‘We keep us safe’. We, meaning community, or as I like to call them: my homies.”
