GOLETA, Calif., July 1 (Santa Barbara Times Online) — UC Santa Barbara police in Santa Barbara, California, have used their campus-wide Timely Warning system twice in less than two months to alert the school community about reported sexual violence near campus.
The first alert came on May 10, after police received a May 9 report of a rape and strangulation in campus housing. A later campus warning described a June 24 groping report near West Campus.
The alerts matter because they are police notices, not court findings. They are meant to tell students, faculty and staff about a reported crime and any safety concerns while an investigation continues.
What is a Timely Warning?
In the May alert, UC Santa Barbara police wrote: “This is a Timely Warning regarding a crime that occurred on campus property.”
The same alert said: “At this time, no suspect information is available for release.”
What did police say about the May case?
Police said they got the report at about 11 p.m. on May 9, roughly an hour after the incident. In the alert, UCPD said the survivor and the suspect had met earlier that evening at a party in Isla Vista and were otherwise unknown to one another. The department said it was investigating the crime.
What did the June alert say?
The June 24 incident was described as happening around 11:30 a.m. on a paved access road on West Campus. The alert said a man on a bicycle rode past the victim, looped back several times over about 15 minutes, then came up from behind, groped the victim and fled toward Tierra De Fortuna Park.
Police described the suspect as a Hispanic or Middle Eastern man about 35 years old, about 5-foot-8, with a thin build, a shaved head, brown eyes and scruffy facial hair. He was said to be wearing a gray tank top or cut-off T-shirt, shorts and a black backpack while riding a bicycle.
Why does this matter?
On a campus, a Timely Warning is meant to give the community enough information to stay alert without turning an allegation into a conclusion. In these UCSB alerts, police did not identify a suspect in the May case and did not name the person described in the June report.
The result is a snapshot of how campus police respond when serious allegations are reported: they notify the community, describe what they know, and continue investigating.
