DAVID HARDEN/Arizona Daily Wildcat Pre-education freshman Kasondra Lamberton holds the tire that remains from her bike, which was stolen from the Kaibab-Huachuca residence hall. According to the Annual Campus Safety and Security Report, bicycle theft is up 60 percent in the past year.

Whenever David Giannini locks up his bike, he makes sure to take his seat, his headlight and his pump with him.

He also uses a $50 lock; all of this just to make sure he isn't going to be walking home at the end of his shift.

"What I do is enough for me," Giannini, who works at Domino's in the Student Union Memorial Center, said.

This type of protection has become necessary for students like Giannini as bike thefts have become increasingly common on campus.

Bike thefts have increased more than 60 percent in the last year, bringing the number stolen in 2003 to 524, according to UAPD's Annual Campus Safety and Security Report released yesterday.

Reducing bike theft is everyone's job, said Sgt. Eugene Mejia, UAPD spokesman.

"Appropriate locking devices can reduce those numbers," Mejia said. "The university community also needs to report any suspicious activity."

The police department is trying to educate people who ride a bike to use specific locks that take time to break.

UAPD suggests using a U-shaped bolt-style lock to secure the front tire and frame of the bike to the rack.

Mejia said this delays the theft, which increases the chances of someone witnessing the crime.

"A lot of people use cable locks · even the U-locks can be broken" Giannini said.

Cable locks only take seconds to cut, which is why the UAPD advises against them.

"Cable locks are easily defeated by small sets of bolt cutters and wire cutters; it makes it very easy," Mejia said.

Besides locking his bike and tire, Adam Abramovitch has another strategy for preventing bike theft.

"I just have a cheap bike," said Abramovitch, a psychology senior.

UAPD also recommends that bicyclists register their bikes with Parking and Transportation Services. PTS provides free bike registration that can help reunite bikes and owners in the case of theft.

The registration service was started in the mid-1980s, said Gary Thomson, associate director of PTS.

"It has certainly helped with bike recovery, we are instantly able to notify the owner," Thomson said.

He added that there are over 9,000 bikes on campus every day, and most of them are not registered.

The UA is ranked as one of the top five in the nation when it comes to students using bicycles, Thomson said. That number is based on the number of bikes on campus as a percentage of the number of people on campus.

He attributes this ranking to the mild climate. Unlike other campuses, bikes are a year-round means of transportation to and around the UA.

PTS offers fenced bike cages in two of the parking garages for those who do not feel safe locking their bikes on the racks around campus.

Tyndall Garage has two of these cages, and Main Gate parking garage has one. Only 15 of 110 spaces in these cages are rented right now, Thomson said.

The cages can be rented for a $25 a year.

The safety report also released information about liquor law violations.

Also according to the report, there were 773 liquor law violations in residence halls.

Jim Van Arsdel, residence life director, said this number is not entirely representative of liquor violations in the residence halls.

"The numbers UAPD reported are a dramatic under-representation of alcohol-related activity," Arsdel said.

"I think one needs to understand that not every alcohol violation is reported to police."

Hate crimes have also increased, from one reported case three years ago to five last year.

Mejia said four of those five were not directed at individuals.

"Four were random expletives written on walls, not directed at a specific person," he said.

"One person was yelled at, they told him to Îgo back to his own country,'" Mejia said, accounting for all five reported hate crimes.

The Campus Safety and Security Report is issued annually by UAPD. An e-mail notice about the report was sent to students on Tuesday, with a link to a report that contained inaccurate statistics due to a computer glitch. Tuesday night UAPD corrected the inaccuracies.

To view the rest of the campus crime statistics go to www.uapd.arizona.edu.