DPS needs to work to make students feel safer
Four robberies and one stabbing have taken place within, and around, the SU campus since the beginning of September, an alarmingly high number of serious incidents that is cause for campus concern. The Department of Public Safety needs to act quickly to institute measures to stem this year’s crime problem. Measures of accountability should be considered to make sure that every year’s crime levels are improving from the last. Dispatching three or four more cars to patrol the campus boundaries could be a smart first step to reducing crime levels. The greater the presence of DPS, the less likely an individual would risk committing crime in the Syracuse University area. Another measure would be to increase DPS officer presence on foot around the edges of campus. An increase in Blue Light Emergency stations is another consideration for adding extra security around campus. Since the majority of junior, seniors and graduate students live in off campus housing, an extension of blue lights into off campus areas could be a positive step.
The University should also consider instituting some way of holding DPS publicly accountable when it comes to crime around campus. Whether crime goes up or down this year the entire community could benefit from some type of public review, reward or punishment system with real leverage on those in charge of campus safety. It’s equally important that students feel safe, and a public accountability program could let students know that things are being done to make them safer every year.
The bottom line is that DPS needs to heighten campus security, soon. Had there been more Blue Light Stations or patrol cars, these robberies could have been avoided. The University needs to take the events from the past months and years, learn from them, and take action to ensure that crime tracks downwards in the future.
