Hi, can i ask you a few questions.....

Students have always seemed to express dissatisfaction with Drexel University’s Public Safety Department. In an attempt to cast a better light on the officers who “protect” us, I have been investigating the department and the officers.

What most students are unaware of is the amount of training and precautions Drexel takes before employing an officer. These officers are not actually employed by Drexel, but contracted through an outside company. Roughly, 100 officers are currently employed and divided into three shifts in order to best secure campus.

The first bit of my investigation went surprisingly well. I was able to interview Anna, who works in Human Resources. She works with an outside contracting company who hires all the DPS officers. She was very open and willing to talk to me and answer questions. After this interview, I was lulled into a false sense of security because of the lack of classic Drexel “red tape.”

The first myth I was trying to disprove of Drexel officers is that they are untrained and uneducated. Anna informed me that all applicants go through an extensive process to become a Drexel Public Safety officer. Upon filling out an application, a prospective officer is subject to a background chest, a drug test, past employment verification and finally an interview. After the interview process if a job offer is extended there is then an extensive training program the new officer must complete. First there is a two day training and orientation session by the contracted company. After this, the officers are brought to Drexel for a one day second orientation session and special training for job specifics. Anna’s interview provided me with a lot of useful information, but when I tried to interview DPS officers to verify this, I was rejected.

Rejection:
I attempted to talk to several different DPS officers in the dorms and on the street, and got turned down repeatedly. With some officers they spent more time talking to me about how they cannot partake in interviews, then it would have taken to answer my actual questions. An overnight desk officer in East Hall actually told me that he was not able to answer my questions because he does not know what I would be asking him, and he wouldn’t know how to answer them. I contacted the University Public Relations department to find out if any orders have ever been given for a D PS officer to not speak to students about their job, and as far as I found there has never been a statement issued.

On campus, everyone sees the officers that patrol the streets. Foot patrol officers are cross-trained on bike and the segways. After initially purchasing three Segways in the beginning of 2005, each costing about $5000, Drexel now owns six. In addition to the six segways, the university has also acquired six chariots to aide in patrolling campus. Seeing segways on campus are a rare occurrence, which leads most students to believe that they were a waste of money. Once again, I tried to talk to some officers to see how much cross training the

y have undergone, and no one would speak with me. You probably have not seen any recently due to the snow. In addition, the patrol areas of the segways are limited mainly because of the uneven sidew

alks and the community areas around Drexel’s campus.

A recent poll in the Drexel Triangle stated that over 40% of the student population was not confident in the level of security provided by Drexel Public Safety. After not being able to access DPS officers for interviews, I turned to the student population of Drexel University. Students overall do feel safe on campus, but when trying to use some of the features offered by DPS they run into problem

s. Jackylyn Rivera, a sophomore, tried to call D

PS to report an incident in and got their answering machine. Several other students have had problems contacting DPS to report incidents. Felicia Williams, another sophomore living in Calhoun smelled marijuana on her floor. The DPS officers told her that she needed to tell the RA on duty and there was nothing they could do about her situation. These events did not strike me as terribly disturbing, but my next two stories are probably part of why DPS has such a bad name.

Ashley’s story:

Kara’s story:

Kara is a junior currently living off campus. Her freshman year as a resident of Calhoun, she went out one night and attended an off campus party. Late into the night, he friends wanted to stay longer but Kara was ready to leave. She did not feel safe trying to get back to campus alone. Someone told her to contact Drexel’s Escort Service and a Public Safety officer would come get her and take her back to Calh

oun. She gave the address of the party to the DPS officer, and she was told they did now know where that location was, and would not come get her.

Conclusion:

The Cleary Act has done a lot to improve the state of DPS and other security initiatives of college campuses. Their only crime reports are just a small step towards making Drexel have an outstanding security program. Posting this information on websites is a good start, but in order to get those statistics down they need to get a better handle on their security team.

DPS SAFETY QUICK FACTS:

*Drexel contracts over 100 officers.

*There are 99 blue emergency light poles that get checked every 24 hours.

*Shifts run from 6:45 am-3 pm,

245pm- 11pm,

and 10:45 pm -7 am.

*Drexel owns 6 segways and 6 chariots

*Emergency Number: 215-895-2222