During the past several years IU-Bloomington has implemented a variety of different campus initiatives across the board in order to emphasize the importance of student safety.
One of the efforts the University has made to protect the safety of students is through the distribution and availability of blue light emergency towers across campus .
These towers have a button that, when activated, calls IU Police Department dispatch. No matter the location, IUPD’s response is immediate.
“We usually respond within a couple of minutes,” Capt. Andy Stephenson said.
Even though the University provides these resources, it’s more common for students to use personal self-defense devices instead. However, the resources provided by the university remain, relatively unused.
IU-Bloomington has 56 blue light emergency towers. This number greatly exceeds other IU campuses, like IU-Southeast, which only has 13 blue light phone towers, though is a significantly smaller campus. IU-Southeast, however, also has yellow light phones on its campus, which are very similar to blue light phones, except the majority are placed indoors with a few exceptions.
A significant number of IU-Bloomington’s blue light towers are located in campus parking lots and garages, although crime is consistently reported closer to residence halls and downtown where college nightlife is popular.
Full-time IUPD officer Pablo Padilla said the department hasn’t received many blue light calls recently and when it does, they usually aren’t legitimate.
“About 99 percent of the time it’s a false alarm or someone pushed it when they were walking by,” Padilla said.
The sometimes inaccessible locations and students’ lack of knowledge on how to operate the towers may be the leading reasons for their general under use. Junior Nicole Downs said the towers are unfamiliar to her.
“I don’t think it would cross my mind to use one of the emergency towers, and I even feel that most IU students are unaware of their purpose,” Downs said.
Although the University offers students these safe outlets in case of emergency situations, it seems more popular for students to take matters into their own hands with personal safety devices.
One appeal of a personal device is the familiarity it provides because students may not always know where the blue light towers are located on campus, Downs said. She said it’s a good idea to carry a defense mechanism, like pepper spray or an alarm device if in an unfamiliar area in the dark.
One of the popular alarm devices on the market currently is the ROBOCOPP Sound Grenade, the world’s smallest SOS alarm, according to the ROBOCOPP website. IU-Bloomington is one of more than 100 college campuses where students use this device, ROBOCOPP public relations director Jill Turner said.
Based in San Francisco, ROBOCOPP’s Sound Grenade reaches 120 decibels when triggered. This alarm is loud enough to incur permanent ear damage.
The company also has a version of the Sound Grenade called the ROBORanger that not only sounds off the alarm but simultaneously calls 911. Despite these devices and many others like them, Turner said this is only the beginning for the product because the company wants to see violent crime eventually become non-existent.
“It’s still not engrained in our minds as the number one safety device like pepper spray is,” Turner said.
However, pepper spray, while usually a student’s go-to defense mechanism, also has problems of its own. Students who aren’t trained in using pepper spray or have never used it before an attack run the risk of actually attacking themselves. Wind plays a major part in the direction of the spray when activated and, without adequate knowledge and practice, a student could end up impairing themselves.
Whether one would prefer to make use of the towers or use a personal device, these are only two of several other methods students can practice for optimal safety. The Protect IU website recommends students stay alert and aware of their surroundings, keep hands free and avoid areas that are not well lit.
IU’s website also suggests planning ahead for certain emergencies and always to have a gameplan on the off chance of a risky situation. Whether directly involved in an emergency situation or the bystander of a suspicious scene, it’s always okay to call IUPD.
