Going It Alone

Rarely does a campus tour guide neglect to mention that Columbia Public Safety offers an escort service during nighttime hours to ensure students' safety. The recent spate of violent crimes in Morningside Heights—including a robbery near 119th Street and Riverside Drive on Jan. 29—stands as an unfortunate reminder that such a service is all too necessary. Operating seven days a week on and in the vicinity of campus, the escort service is a valuable resource that has been greatly improved in the past few years. Nonetheless, persistent logistical flaws limit the service's ability to protect those students who count on it.

The escort service consists of walking escorts (available every night between the hours of 7 p.m. and 3 a.m.), a shuttle bus (running on a fixed route between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. and responding to calls between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m.), and patrol vehicles (responding to calls between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.). Walking escorts—trained students who wear reflective Public Safety vests and carry radios—are required to travel in pairs. Patrol vehicles are only used when the walking escorts and shuttle buses are busy, and they often are: in the two weeks from Dec. 5 to Dec. 19 last year, 899 escorts were utilized between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. Barnard runs a similar operation, but after 4 a.m., Barnard students must also rely on Columbia's fleet of patrol cars.

Sheer volume pushes the system to its limits. Burdened by the number of calls, Public Safety dispatchers do not record the names or numbers of students who request escorts. In addition, out of fears that students will not be ready and waiting, Public Safety does not provide an estimated arrival time. These two facts combine to make coordination a constant problem. Although Public Safety tries to keep wait times under 10 minutes, substantial delays can occur when escorts are overextended or when patrol cars respond to emergencies. Moreover, students cannot be notified of unforeseen delays because the dispatcher lacks their contact information. With no way of knowing when their escorts will arrive, students have little choice but to wait on the street or in doorways—especially since patrol vehicles sometimes drive off when students are not readily available upon their arrival. At best, students are left standing in plain view in what may be dangerous circumstances. At worst, students might eschew the uncertainty of the escort service for the dangers of a lonely walk home. Doing so is even riskier after students have waited a while in vain before setting out alone even later in the night.

The University should consider hiring more Public Safety patrollers and dispatchers to relieve the burden on the escort service. Regardless, Public Safety should require dispatchers to take down contact information for each caller. Even if Public Safety is unwilling to provide time estimates, dispatchers should be equipped to contact students in the event of significant delays so that students are not left waiting and wondering unnecessarily.

Public Safety's recent assignment of additional officers to the escort service has thankfully relieved some of the strain on the system. Its new policy requiring walking escorts to wait for calls in a centralized location has helped ensure that they respond to calls in pairs, rather than singly. But more still needs to be done.The escort service is a crucial element of student safety, and the poor coordination between dispatchers and students warrants immediate attention.