The University of Memphis is starting a new strategy in which they hope will help make the campus a safer place.
Bruce Harber, director of police services, announced Tuesday in a campus-wide meeting that The University is creating two safety advisory groups to "routinely discuss campus security."
Each group is going to be made up of 10 people. The first group will be students only, and the second will be faculty and staff.
The announcement came in the wake of the on-campus death of Taylor Bradford Sunday night.
Harber said the police should not be the only ones keeping an eye on the campus. He said that students should take responsibility as the "eyes and ears" for police. With only 30 officers on staff, they need any help students can provide.
"No matter how good the officers may be, they can not do it all," Harber said. "The addition of another 20,000-plus people observing things on campus tremendously expands the police force's capability and the amount of information we have to work with."
Derek Myers, deputy director of police services, said that anything out of the ordinary should be reported to campus police.
"Something as simple as, 'Hey, that guy looks suspicious,' could help," Myers said.
Even President Shirley Raines has previously asked students to keep an eye out around campus.
"Your observations, your alertness, your own personal preparedness can be invaluable to the prevention or management of a crisis," Raines said. "Please don't hesitate to report to University authorities anything you believe is worthy of investigation."
Text messages were sent out around 3 a.m. Monday to alert registered students of possible danger, but some students said that they did not receive the news until hours later. This was the first time that The University used the new TigerText system since its creation over the summer. Harber said that over the past few days, the number of registered users of TigerText rose from nearly 1,400 people to a total of almost 6,000. The U of M designed this new message system exactly for this kind of situation.
The University is taking other measures to ensure the safety of its students.
Harber said that since some students may not receive news as quickly as they need to, The U of M uses multiple communication methods to send out alerts, including e-mail and The University homepage. Traditional means are also used, such as local broadcast news media and flyers put up around campus. There is also an outdoor warning system in place, consisting of three towers, two on the main campus and one at the Park Avenue campus, designed to alert students of a possible threat on campus.
According to Harber, The U of M will start using more "informal" methods, sending out alerts with a minimal amount of information. Then when more information is available, it will be sent as a follow-up. This way, Harber said, students will be notified of events when "safety is the key issue rather than the complete account."
Harber also mentioned the addition of six emergency phones around campus over the last few months. There are now 29 phones on campus, all of which are directly connected to The University police dispatcher.
