Emergency phones to be installed

BY SHAKIA COLLINS | STAFF WRITER

Emergency call boxes are set to be installed on the PLNU campus. One emergency call box has already been installed outside of Young Hall, according to Public Safety and the placement of other emergency call boxes are yet to be determined. The purpose of emergency call boxes on college campuses is to quickly contact emergency responders in case of an emergency.

Contra Costa Community College in San Francisco and the University of Vermont have removed or are in the process of removing their call boxes. The average, annual upkeep costs for emergency call boxes are $50,000 to $75,000 according to NowForce, a global business that offers comprehensive emergency response solutions.

University of California, Davis is in the process of removing most of its emergency call boxes, because most students do not use it for emergency purposes. With most students having access to cell phones, many campuses feel it is unnecessary to keep the call boxes around according to UC Davis Police Chief, Annette Spicuzza.

PLNU sophomore and education major Autumn Ingrassia said that although this could create a sense of security, it might be a needless cost considering most students carry cell phones with them on a regular basis.

“The money they are using to install these call boxes could be used to increase safety in a more efficient way”, said Ingrassia.

In the past year other college campuses in San Diego, specifically SDSU, has experienced 24 sexual assaults and 18 rapes according to SDSU’s 2015 Safety and Security Report.

In the last year SDSU and UCSD have both discussed and implemented sexual assault and prevention programs to lessen the amount of sexual assault on their campuses.

With the close proximity of these sexual assaults, PLNU’s safety policies have been in full affect to prevent such incidents from happening here. In PLNU’s 2014 Annual Security Report, crime rates for 2013 were relatively low and consistent with previous years. PLNU’S 2015 Annual Security Report was released on Wednesday. Last year was the first time universities were required to report the number of crimes related to domestic violence, dating violence and stalking.

With this addition, the numbers represented in the current security report show one account of rape, a domestic violence case and a stalking situation. However the security report states, “Because the new statutes went into effect in 2014 and because final guidance from the Department of Education on their application was not provided until October 2014, recordkeeping for these crime types [domestic violence, dating, violence, and stalking] prior to that time may be incomplete.”

In the coming weeks, Public Safety will be further discussing the placement and number of emergency call boxes to be installed on campus. Public Safety officials had few comments on the matter, because the logistics of the emergency call boxes are still being decided. The Point was unable to get further comment on the matter from Public Safety.