Melany Varela | Staff Writer
Scooter theft has become the most prevalent crime on campus, according to the university’s crime logs, raising concerns about security as students struggle to keep their rides safe.
This trend has been more common in the last year with a total theft of 74 scooters in 2024 as teh vehicles grow more popular because of their efficiency and accessibility.
Since the start of 2024, campus police has seen an abnormal surge in the number of scooter thefts occurring on campus.
Bar graph showing the total number of scooter thefts on campus for the last 3 years. | Courtesy of Magali Zoghaib
Statistically, data from FIU’s crime logs indicate a 252 percent increase between 2023 and 2024 and an expected increase of almost 183% between 2024 and 2025 assuming the trend from 2025 continues for the rest of the year.
“It’s a big deal, not only this university but other universities around the United States,” said Grisel Ramirez Cooper, university police public information officer.
According to police department data, Florida State University reported 94 scooter thefts in 2024, while the University of South Florida reported 135.
So is it outsiders deliberately targeting campuses to steal scooters, or are students seizing an opportunity to steal?
“I really can’t get into the details of that, because they’re ongoing investigations,” Cooper said. “But it’s happening. They’re aware of it, and it’s being worked on.”
Upon investigating and questioning, Panthernow recognized 2 main suspected reasons behind the easy and rampant theft of scooters on campus.
As shown in the picture above, many students leave their scooters parked outside builldings without a physical lock since they rely on the fact that they can lock their scooter in place through the app.
“We later found out that if the scooter is the same model as the next scooter, as long as you have the same model scooter, they’re able to unlock each other’s scooters,” said Cooper. “Someone else comes with the same app, with the same model, and they’re able to unlock it. At that point, they unlock it and they drive away with it.”
Additionally, the University has adopted a policy forbidding the presence of scooters inside buildings on campus including on-campus residential buildings and “may only be used on University sidewalks and while crossing the street at crosswalks”.
The implementation of this policy has gotten stricter and therefore students can no longer have their scooters near them in class or with them in their dorms.
This resulted in an influx of scooters locked to outdoor fixed furniture and signs.
Could more bike racks help reduce the chances of keeping poorly locked scooters safe?
“I do believe that more bike racks would help, because now this is, you know, like we discussed earlier, this is now the new form of transportation,” said Cooper.
Besides, FIU’s police department is pressing students to register their bikes and scooters to aid in their search and identification.
Scooters, depending on the type, don’t have serial numbers on them and therefore are impossible to tell apart from other similar looking scooters.
“Sometimes we’ll have a report where they’ll say, hey, my scooter was black and it has red wires, but then we don’t have an identifying number,” said Cooper.
A lot of these scooters look alike, so it’s important to register the scooter in UPD’s system.
“We also recommend students to personalize them, you know, add stickers. A lot of these are the same,” said Cooper.
On top of that, FIU’s police department conducts educational campaigns during student orientations and tabling at Graham Center such as Coffee With a Cop including social media posts to raise awareness on scooter theft and the importance of registration.
FIU PD also took the initiative to increase police presence at the areas where the reports are rampant as well as adding 11 more security cameras as an extra safety measure.
“We’ve increased our uniform patrol and staffing and the areas where we’ve been getting reports, just so that we can be more vigilant and so that we can have more checks. And the other thing that they’ve done is they partnered up with IT, and they’ve increased the cameras so that they’re able to, like, monitor the bike racks even more,” said Cooper.
Cooper offered several recommendations: for example, attaching an air tag or some sort of tracking system to the scooter to easily locate it if lost.
“You hide it in the scooter somewhere, and then that way, we’re able to see if they’re navigating it around the campus, said Cooper”
Moreover, Cooper urged the importance of implementing the use of U-locks rather than chains or other types of locks since U-locks are drill proof and anti cutting.
Electric scooters which have become the new mode of transportation, commonly used for its convenience and effectiveness have now become a prime target for theft, sparking worries among students and universities.
“We want to make it stop,” said Cooper. “It’s not just us, it’s other universities.”
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