Students hold crime prevention townhall

           In response to a recent spike in campus robberies, students met to discuss ways to handle the problem in a townhall-style meeting last Tuesday. Hosted by various student organizations, the meeting – dubbed "Don't be the Next Campus Alert" – featured a roundtable discussion with student leaders as well as representatives from the Georgia State University Police Department.

        One student related her own personal experience with campus crime – one that left her dazed and confused in the hospital for two weeks. "I couldn't remember anything that happened," recalled Keticia Wilson, a Georgia State student that was robbed at gunpoint and then pistol-whipped on campus almost two years ago. "I remember my mother walking in and dropping her coffee because I was awake and conscious."

        She said she does not blame the police for what happened to her and said she still feels safe while on campus. Other students were more accusatory of the campus police department, saying that the police's response time needs improvement and that officers need to be more courteous to students, especially with its campus escort service. "I've heard complaints, not just from this group, but from others, about not being courteous," said Georgia State Police Chief Connie Sampson, while speaking from inside the audience.

        She blamed the fact that escort calls also go through the emergency line and said maybe that is something the police should look into changing. "We've got all the same escort calls going into our main emergency operation function," Sampson said. "And so we might need to revisit that and might need to have those calls channeled to a separate operator."

        One student asked if the police department had any plans to upgrade its escort vans after it purchased four brand-new Dodge Chargers for its officers earlier this year. Sampson said that the department presently has three vans for its escort service but that budgetary concerns may be a limiting factor in providing immediate response time. "What everybody knows is when you call, you want it right there and you want it for yourself," Sampson said. "But there really is a budgetary kind of issue to look at with drivers and that kind of thing."

        "We have enough vans, but we probably need to look at the people that can operate those vans," she said. Sampson also added that the average response time for escort drivers to reach students is approximately five minutes.

         However, other members of the police department told the audience to be wary of their surroundings and discussed ways in which the police department was attempting to reduce crime. She said police have started several initiatives to provide additional police presence at high-crime areas they have identified, as well ordered the tactical placement of police officers at night to protect students.

         The Crime Prevention unit offers two personal self-defense classes held in the residence halls to teach students how to protect themselves, Sgt. Krystal Perkins of the Crime Prevention unit said.

         "We definitely want to be proactive and not reactive," Perkins said.