Stanford installing more security cameras

BY ELAINE GOODMAN
Daily Post Correspondent

As some question whether Brown University could have prevented the fatal shooting of two students this month if it had more security cameras, Stanford University recently added nearly 300 cameras on campus.

In 2024, Stanford added 290 security cameras “to a variety of campus facilities,” according to the university’s 2025 Safety, Security and Fire Report, released in late September.

In addition, the university plans to install up to three new 911 emergency telephone towers in the next two years near student residences and academic buildings.

Two students were killed and nine people wounded on Dec. 13 by a gunman who entered Tanner Auditorium on the Brown University campus during an exam review session.

Although law enforcement was able to collect video footage of the suspect, reportedly none of the videos came from Brown’s own cameras. Critics, including President Trump, have questioned why the university had “so few security cameras.”

Brown has 1,200 cameras

Brown has more than 1,200 cameras inside and outside buildings across campus, a university spokesman told news outlets. But the auditorium where the students were shot is in an older building at the edge of campus and has few if any cameras, Rhode Island’s attorney general said.

Stanford’s safety report did not say how many security cameras were on campus before the 290 were added in 2024, or indicate the cameras’ locations.

Plans for the three new emergency towers on campus would be in addition to seven towers on the main campus at the time of the report. A user who pushes the red button on the blue tower is connected directly to an emergency dispatcher. The tower’s location is transmitted and a blue strobe light starts flashing at the top of the tower.

Stanford can activate the emergency towers to emit a sound when there’s a campus emergency.

Stanford also offers a free phone app to students, faculty and staff called SafeZone. Similar to the emergency towers, the app will share the user’s location and call 911 when the user reports an emergency on campus.

Stanford’s annual safety report is also known as the Clery report because it’s required by a federal law known as the Jeanne Clery Act.

Crime trends

The report includes a section on crime statistics. 

In 2024, there were 46 sex offenses on campus, compared to 63 in 2023 and 59 in 2022. The 2024 sex offenses included 27 rapes and 19 cases of fondling.

Fifty-seven cases of stalking on campus were reported in 2024, about the same as the 55 cases in 2023. Twenty-six aggravated assaults were reported on campus in 2024, up from 18 in 2023.

There were 181 on-campus motor vehicle thefts reported in 2024. In addition to cars and trucks, the category includes the theft of motorcycles, golf carts, e-bikes, and motor scooters. In 2023, 190 motor vehicle thefts were reported on campus, following 149 thefts in 2022.

In 2024, there were 33 arrests for on-campus drug violations and 10 arrests for weapon possession.

No murder or manslaughter cases were reported at Stanford in 2022, 2023 or 2024.

Hate crimes

Hate crimes totalled 12 in 2024, compared to 24 in 2023 and seven in 2022.

Among the 2024 hate crimes were seven cases of vandalism. Those included a case where feces were smeared beneath a Palestinian flag on the garage door of a home on campus, according to the safety report. In another incident, a replica Palestinian flag on a dorm room door was torn in half.

Another case was when Israeli flags were kicked over from their stands, causing minor damage, the report said. In a separate incident, posters displaying the Israeli flag were damaged when they were ripped from a display.

The report describes three 2024 hate crimes classified as intimidation, including a case where a drunk student challenged another student to a fight and used a racial epithet against Black people.

Two of last year’s hate crimes were simple assaults. In one case, someone followed, poked and grabbed an alum at a university event. The suspect made a derogatory comment about the alum’s perceived Indian heritage and said the alum did not belong at the event, the report said.