Foothill College was not locked down after an armed robbery Nov. 19 because of a 45-minute delay between the incident and a police report.

The robbed students did not have a cell phone to call the police, which delayed the report, according to Donna Jones-Dulin, associate vice president of educational resources and college operations at De Anza College.

Each college campus has only one or two full-time police officers and additional police must be called which further delayed the process.

“Even if they had gotten it, it doesn’t mean they would’ve done a lockdown,” said Jones-Dulin. “It all depends on what the circumstances are. And so in this situation they acted appropriately.” 

Foothill administrators and the police concluded that the suspect would have made his escape by this time and decided that a lockdown was not necessary.

De Anza’s biggest problem for the last four years has been burglary.

According to the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Summary Report, two vehicle thefts and nine burglary cases were reported in 2011 at De Anza.

“The student should feel assured that the college is doing everything to make sure they’re safe when they’re at the campus,” said Jones-Dulin. 

“And that’s not to say everything will go smoothly. But, we’re very conscious of it and we’ll do everything that we possibly can. The students should feel safe here.”

Although it is important to take preventive measures by locking up our own things or not keep valuables lying around, sometimes it cannot be helped.  Don’t keep valuables in the school parking lot because that’s where burglaries occur the most.

Be sure to keep yourself updated on guidelines incase something happens to you.