Illustration: Ellie Yaeger
Georgetown students generally agree that they feel at ease as they wander campus and surrounding neighborhoods during the day. But when night falls, many—especially those living off campus—approach their walk home with trepidation. Most arm themselves with their phones in case they need to make an emergency call.
Over the past few months, D.C. has seen a spike in violent crime. A man was stabbed on a subway car in mid-July for refusing to relinquish his phone on the Metro by NoMa. An intern was shot during a drive-by shooting in Howard just a few weeks before. More recently, there have been armed robberies in Burleith and break-ins on 34th Street; even Copley Hall has not been spared mention on the campus-wide Safety Alerts emails.
Thankfully, safety in today’s digital world is increasingly secured at the touch of a button. In 2013, GUPD introduced a safety phone application called EmergenSee, which was soon replaced by superior version, called LiveSafe. This application, which can be downloaded for Android and iOS, allows students to send crime tips, along with audio or video recordings, to law enforcement authorities. Should a student feel unsafe, they can call an emergency contact, Safe Rides, or GUPD itself.
This is all well and good, but the Editorial Board finds it distressing that few students have heard of either of these programs. While the launch of EmergenSee was accompanied with a sign describing its features in the GUPD office, we have yet to find record of it discussed elsewhere. Information about LiveSafe was disseminated similarly modestly, through a single email in September 2014 after it’s launch.
Fortunately, GUPD seems to be trying to step up its communication game. Chief of Police Jay Gruber says that they discuss LiveSafe at every event that GUPD attends. “We try to market all year long” he wrote in an email to the Voice. “We really do try, but we need students, faculty, and staff to take the three minutes to stop and download the app.”
Ultimately though, apps like LiveSafe and other initiatives aimed at making the college experience safer for students will continue to sputter if they’re not better publicized. For starters, they should encourage freshmen to download LiveSafe during NSO, perhaps by offering prizes for early adopters. GUPD’s outreach efforts will inevitably go up against the student skepticism, but that’s all the more reason for them to market services like LiveSafe relentlessly.
For their part, Hoyas need to remember that GUPD’s core mission isn’t to break up rooftop parties in Village A; they’re here to keep the student body safe. Mending the adversarial relationship between Hoyas and campus police is the first step toward keeping the District’s crime wave from encroaching on the Georgetown experience.
