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Los Angeles Police Department officials are keeping a close eye on the Westwood area after a recent string of hate crimes was reported in the area earlier this month.

Between May 7 and June 6, several Westwood buildings were vandalized in what police are calling hate crimes, which consisted of graffiti writing targeting certain races and religions.

According to an LAPD community alert circulated to Westwood residents, vandals scrawled “hate-related slogans” across the doors of some Westwood buildings.

LAPD Detective Lisa Householder said 15 such incidents have been reported since May 6, with the last reported on June 17. She said many of them occurred in Westwood, and the rest occurred in other parts of West Los Angeles.

A number of hate-related vandalism incidents were reported in the immediate UCLA area, including incidents on Kelton, Midvale and Landfair Avenues and Wilshire Boulevard.

Householder said the vandalism targets numerous racial and ethnic groups, including blacks, Mexicans and Jews.

“They are not targeting one specific group,” she said.

In each case, the slogans were written neatly in washable black marker, and most occurred late at night or very early in the morning, Householder said.

She added that because the vandalism incidents are so similar to one another, police believe the same person or group of people is responsible for them.

Householder said that at this point the police have no reason to suspect that the perpetrator is a UCLA student or in any way affiliated with the university, but said because all the vandalism occurred in the same area, police do believe the perpetrator is a West Los Angeles resident.

However, she said police currently do not have any leads or tips, and are relying on information from residents and other police departments to provide insight into the vandalism.

The majority of the reports were filed with LAPD, but Householder said three were filed with university police. But UCPD crime analyst Kristi Godines said at this point UCPD has not launched any investigation of its own, and is simply sharing information as it comes in with LAPD.

Anders Kusian, a second-year biochemistry student and a Westwood Village resident, said he had not heard about the vandalism but was concerned to learn that hate crimes were occurring in Westwood.

“It doesn’t make me feel less safe, but I didn’t know that was a problem in Westwood. I didn’t know that was going on here,” he said.

Householder urged residents to keep their property well-lit and to look out for loiterers or suspicious persons.

Anyone with information about the crimes should contact LAPD at

(310) 444-1580.