The number of crimes committed on-campus jumped 61 percent in 2006, according to the recently released University Police Department’s 2007 campus security report.

The report showed a total of 39 more incidents of burglary and vehicle theft from the previous year’s statistics. However, the department attributed the spike in crime to the expansion of campus property due to the university’s acquisition of the Stonestown Apartment complex in 2005.

“We expected to see the increase,” said University Chief of Police Kirk Gaston. “There was a rash of auto burglaries and arrests were made.”

Gaston said that crime trends in what is now called University Park North have dropped since the university took over jurisdiction of the area from the San Francisco Police Department.

He added that the 2006 increase in numbers may be because the university took more thorough reports than the SFPD due to the university’s Jeanne Clery Disclosure Act.

“There is a difference in what is reported or investigated than what the SFPD may have reported,” said Gaston.

He added that unlike the “absentee reporting” done through the SFPD website for crimes involving vandalism and theft, “we have the ability to send a person to the door and say ‘have you had anything stolen from you?’”

However, Whitney Owens, a 21-year-old marketing and communications major, still has concerns about the neighborhood’s safety. She has lived in two different apartments in University Park North and said she worries about her brand new car being stolen.

“Over the summer it was fine, but when school started, there was glass all over the street,” she said.

Owens, who comes home late from her job downtown, added that she is afraid of walking to her apartment alone because of the lack of security presence in the neighborhood.

According to SF State’s Residential Property Management Department, the university purchased the Stonestown Apartments in June 2005 for $134 million, increasing the campus size by 14 buildings and 24.81 acres.

The acquisition was paid for with a 30-year CSU system wide revenue bond issued for the purchase of various properties by CSU campuses.

Gaston said the police department is not looking to add more officers to its 38-member force, but will continue to run security assessments in areas that show crime increases.

“What it really gets down to is working with people,” he said. “We need to help people help themselves.”