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USC To Pay LAPD For Increased Security Around Campus

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — The University of Southern California will pay the Los Angeles Police Department to provide more security around its campus, it was announced Thursday.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said the university will contribute at least $600,000 to the new plan.

The LAPD will reassign 30 officers to the Southwest Division, which services the West Adams district, and add another four officers on campus who will work alongside USC's Department of Public Safety.

A special detective who will track area crime trends and a neighborhood prosecutor will round out the new security plan, officials said.

Crime in the area surrounding USC is down 20 percent this year, Chief Charlie Beck told KNX 1070's John Books.

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Parents and students have called for additional security after two graduate students from China, Ying Wu and Ming Qu, were shot and killed near campus earlier this month.

A week later, a public safety officer shot a reputed gang member accused of robbing four USC students at gunpoint near fraternity row.

If was unclear if the robbery suspect, 24-year-old Compton resident Jeremy Hendrick, may have been involved in the first crime.

Campus police have set up a security post on Raymond Avenue near West 27th Street, where Wu and Qu were gunned down. The area, which is roughly a mile from campus, is not usually monitored by the university.

A $200,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the students' killer.

The university currently spends $22 million on year on security.

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