College campuses embrace technology to fight crime
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — From surveillance cameras to call boxes, officers say, devices help them fight crime in areas police can’t be all the time.
On Feb. 22, a University of Georgia student was murdered while jogging, police say, and, on Saturday, a Kentucky college student was killed by a wrestling teammate in his dorm room.
Police on Indiana’s college campuses say they are always vigilant and turning more often to technology to get ahead of criminals.
The University of Indianapolis uses Flock Safety cameras. Police Chief Brandon Pate said the cameras can read a person’s license plate.
“We’ve had incidences where we’ve had people come on campus with a warrant. They didn’t know they had a warrant, but the system notifies us, ‘Hey, the individual that’s registered to this vehicle has a warrant.’ We can go an intercept and say, ‘Hey, we need to go and speak to you.’”
Pate said the Flock system has helped investigators solve several vehicle thefts at UIndy.
UIndy also has added three more emergency call boxes on campus, bringing total to 24. Students can access them if they are in trouble.
“Press a button, and it immediately hooks to an officer’s radio. It will tell us the call box, the number of the call box, the location, and the individual who pressed the button is able to speak and tell us what emergency they are having,” Pate said.
Indiana University also has call boxes on all its campuses. Students also are encouraged to download the Guardian app so they can share their locations on campus with others.
In addition to the Flock Safety cameras, UIndy added 50 traditional surveillance cameras in 2022. The University of Indianapolis Police Department also closed off some roads on campus to limit motorists’ ability to flee from police.
Pale said, “It’s moving the needle, for the perception of safety for sure, but it’s also opening the conversations for us to continue to have dialogue back and forth on what other areas we can make improvements on.”
UIndy encourages students, staff and parents to sign up for Watchdog Alerts that can be sent to their smartphones or email. IU’s version of that system is called IU Notify.
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