One of the first questions parents want answered after sending the children to college is will the campus be safe?
For University of Memphis public safety director Bruce Harber, he couldn't have a better answer.
"One of the things a lot of parents are interested in was the fact that we were ranked No. 1 in safety by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation," Harber said.
The U of M ranked fifth in safety in 2003 and first in 2005 for Tennessee metropolitan schools, but 2006 marks the first year that Memphis ranked first over all.
The TBI ranks schools by analyzing incidents reported by students and faculty on campus per 1,000 students.
That fact has helped put a lot of parents' minds at ease, Harber said.
"Knowing that we are a police department with arrest authority and that we are on campus 365 days and 24 hours a day is a big deal to parents," he said. "And what is even bigger is that we have expanded out in the community."
Thanks to a partnership with the Memphis Police Department, campus police have been able to extend The U of M's high safety record to the neighborhoods surrounding the campus.
"Right around the campus we know that we have a lot of students and faculty who shop, live and commute to campus," Harber said. "We have been working with the MPD on establishing relationships in those areas."
The operation, titled Blue Crush, has stepped up police presence in neighborhoods where some students live and has provided police the opportunity to take several crime prevention measures, Harber said.
"The MPD focused a lot of the Blue Crush operation earlier this summer in the Tillman precinct," he said. "They shut down an entire street of problem properties that had issues with open air drug dealing. They have gone in to try and target these problem areas because if you address the problem crime areas first, they do not develop into issues."
Along with getting a better grasp on safety off campus, campus police have also been working to find new areas to continue to improve safety on campus.
The installation of Tiger Patrol several years ago has helped provide students with an escort to their vehicles after dark, but long delays in the program have caused some students to stop using the escort.
"I don't see any point of waiting for 15 minutes for someone to take you to the car," said Anne Sanders, sociology major. "You could be at your car by the time Tiger Patrol shows up."
Despite slow response times, Harber said they are working on changing Tiger Patrol so it can serve more students faster.
"We are working to try to make Tiger Patrol more efficient," Harber said. "One of the ways we are changing it is to have Tiger Patrol based in the women's dorm rooms where we get the most calls. This way students in a lot of instances won't even have to call Tiger Patrol because they will already be there."
With a more efficient Tiger Patrol, campus police are also working to increase the safety in the parking lots.
"One thing we did last spring that was probably noticed is that we keep the people in the towers later in the evening," Harber said. "We found out that some classes lasted to 10:10 p.m. so we lengthened the amount of time people stay in the towers to 10:30 p.m."
But keeping students safe not only involves police patrolling for criminals, it also includes controlling traffic, Harber said.
Campus police have used speed trailers in years past to track the speeds of motorist driving through campus and warn them of the speed limit.
"Last year we used two speed trailers to let people know that it is 25 not 35 through campus," Harber said. "We just got a grant through the state to buy one of our own instead of borrowing them. The trailers are a lot more positive than putting an officer on the street with a radar gun writing tickets even though sometimes writing tickets is absolutely necessary."
Even though The U of M has seen its share of crime over the years, most students do feel safe on campus, Sanders said.
"There have been times when I felt uncomfortable on campus late at night but you feel like that anywhere at night," she said. "For the most part, I feel safe on campus."
