A group of University of California, Berkeley, parents raised over $40,000 to launch a private security program on the university’s campus.

The SafeBears organization describes itself as a coalition of more than 1,300 Berkeley “parents and community allies working to improve safety” for students on campus. The group’s website describes what it sees as a spike in crime on and near the university’s groups since the summer of 2022, including armed robberies, shootings, and stabbings.

“In March 2023, Berkeley Police Chief Jen Louis reported that the overall number of violent and property crimes in 2022 was at a 10-year high. Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin describes crime around UC Berkeley as ‘extremely concerning and troubling,'” SafeBears states on its website. “Crime rates continue to climb. As of October 2023, robberies, increasingly via gun, are up 22% compared to the same period last year. Students are even voicing their concerns to the media, saying UC Berkeley is ‘definitely less safe than other campuses.”

The new pilot program SafeBears has launched on the Berkeley campus will run through March 23. Until then, six unarmed “safety ambassadors” are patrolling the campus at night to provide “a physical deterrence to any threats against students.”

SafeBears president Sagar Jethani, the father of two Berkeley students, told CBS News in an interview that the university has not done enough to ensure members of its community are safe on its campus.

“The fact is, if they’re not going to act, despite repeated pleas from parents and students to take more substantial action, then we’re going to act,” Jethani said. “We want to, frankly, turn up the heat with the administration. We want to show that we’re not content to just wait forever to have these safety ambassadors deployed.”

Berkeley, for its part, appears less than enthused about the pilot program.

“Hiring private security raises a number of concerns including the training and experience of individuals hired by such firms,” a university spokesperson told Fox News. “Further, any security effort on the campus must be coordinated with UCPD, independent of the funding source.”