You read it every week.

A bike is cut from the rack. A parking pass disappears from an uncovered jeep. A backpack is lifted from a University Bookstore cubby, followed by a requisite jab about the price of textbooks.

The vast majority of campus crime is property crime, and most is easily prevented.

The Police Tips that accompany The Daily Utah Chronicle’s Police Report come from an 11 page booklet, filled with 51 items design to prevent crime and promote safety. Most are simple, common-sense measures.

Lock your bike to a bike rack and use a U-lock or several cables. A criminal can easily cut a single one. Put the top down on a jeep, lock all doors to any car. Don’t expect your parking pass will just stay put while you are in class.

In the bookstore, use a locker. When finished shopping, you get your quarter back, leaving the author of the Police Report with one less smart remark.

When you plan your budget to stretch every dollar, petty theft hurts. Losing your backpack potentially means losing hundreds of dollars of books and invaluable hours of notes.

A cut bike cable means no transportation. A stolen parking pass means essentially the same thing. But the alternative to the bus makes any student’s wallet cringe.

Those with light fingers and cable cutters are few and far between, but they are among us.

And while the U may be nestled up against mountains, the city sits directly below, even around us. It is important to remember we live on an urban campus.

Crime happens. But we can make it more difficult, and our best weapon is simply common sense.

If you are on campus at night, take the most well-lit route. If you do feel threatened, remember that campus police offer an escort service.

If the U community does not feel safe to us, it cannot reach its full potential as an institution of higher learning.

As individuals, we can do small things to improve the environment and deter crimes of all types.