Isla Vista law enforcement response from June to August, summarized

The Nexus summarized UC Santa Barbara Police Department’s and Santa Barbara County Fire Department’s responses to crime and fire reports in Isla Vista between June 9 and Aug. 9. 

The UC Santa Barbara Police Department (UCPD) is one of the arresting agencies that have Isla Vista and UCSB campus areas under their jurisdictions. UCPD did not respond to requests for comment. 

The Nexus found that 215 crimes were reported to the UCPD from June 9 to Aug. 9. The most frequent type of reported crime was theft, making up 28.74% of total crime reports. Other frequently reported crimes were categorized as “alcohol,” “other,” “drugs” and “vandalism.” 

Of the 215 crimes reported, 41.4% of them resulted in an arrest, citation or conduct referral, with 20% leading to arrest and 19.07% a citation. The remaining 56.28% of crime reports did not result in a report filing. 

UCPD crime reports were largely located between Camino Pescadero and Ocean Road, with the largest cluster — 45 crime reports — occurring between Cordoba Road and Del Playa Drive. The second largest cluster of 17 crime reports occurred near the intersection of Camino Del Sur and El Colegio Road — near Los Carneros Road, a frequent route taken to exit Isla Vista and enter the neighboring Goleta area. Other notable locations of crime reports include in the 6600 and 6700 block of Del Playa Drive, along West Campus Point Lane and near the intersection of Abrego Road and Camino Pescadero. 

There was a general decline in UCPD crime reports in July — with an average of 2.68 crimes reported per day — following a spike in June of five crime reports per day on average. 

Santa Barbara County Fire Department (SBC Fire) is the law enforcement agency that responds to fire reports in Isla Vista and UCSB’s campus area. There were 11 fires reported in June and July 2023, with eight fires reported during the night and six fires in the last weeks of UCSB’s Spring Quarter 2023. Of the 11, there were four intentional furniture fires, two rubbish fires, one grass fire from fireworks and four unintentional fires from cooking and other causes. 

SBC Fire Public Information Officer Scott Safechuck noted that this number of fire reports is not out of the ordinary and that there’s been an improvement in decreasing intentionally set fire incidents from setting furniture ablaze or from fireworks. Regardless, he advised students of the dangers of setting fires regardless of size. 

“A fire can cause severe burn injuries to an individual, and it can get out of control very fast and cause more damage to structures, as well as threatening human life,” Safechuck said. “If students are going to be getting rid of their furniture, it should not be through burning it, and they should be donating it to some of the nonprofit organizations in the county.”