While some students spend the hours between 6 p.m. and 3 a.m. studying, sleeping or partying the night away, for the 80 to 100 students who work as police escorts at this university, keeping the campus safe is an all-night job.
Since last fall, there have been about 900 calls to the escort service, police said. Under the escort system, students can call a University Police dispatcher and request an escort to walk them back to their residence hall or apartment. While part of escorts’ duties is to keep an eye out for suspicious behavior, they cannot use force or take action in a police situation, University Police spokesman Capt. Marc Limansky said, but they can provide a comforting presence for students faced with an unsafe journey home.
“They are non-sworn members of our police department,” Limansky said.
The police aides who work as escorts must go through a background check before they are hired, and the majority are criminology and criminal justice majors, Limansky said.
Andrew Ross started working as an escort three years ago and became a supervisor in 2011. He said after going through training and an orientation program, aides learn how to use the radio system and prepare for dangerous situations.
Occasionally, students misunderstand the concept of the escort service, Ross said.
“It is a walking escort,” he said. “Sometimes people get a car when the foot patrol isn’t available, and the next time, they expect one. … They don’t really like it when we send a walking team.”
Student misuse of the service has also been a problem, Ross said.
“Occasionally, we have people who call us and call NITE Ride and call the shuttle at the same time,” he said. “I would consider that misuse because the person is not feeling afraid; it is just about seeing who gets there first.”
Several years ago, the student police auxiliary division of University Police, which operates the escort service, started using bicycles and Segways in order to enable faster responses to student calls. And while Limansky said students shouldn’t hesitate to call when they feel in danger, he said the perception of crime on the campus is worse than the reality.
Limansky said the majority of the calls come from female students rather than males, but some said all students should take advantage of the service to avoid becoming the victim of a crime. Freshman communication and Spanish major Rachel Marget, who lives in the University View, said she heard about the escort service during freshman orientation, and would probably use it eventually.
“Of course girls need it more because they are smaller,” she said. “But I think boys shouldn’t be ashamed to use it too.”
Junior marketing major Cristina Giron said although she has not used the escort service, she frequently visits her younger sister, who lives on the campus, and feels safer knowing it exists.
According to Limansky, students are most likely to become victims of a crime in the early morning hours, and about half of the escort calls come in between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m. Most calls come from McKeldin Library, Stamp Student Union and Comcast Center, he said.
In January, computer science professor Ashok Agrawala launched M-Urgency, a mobile app students can use to alert the police escort service if they find themselves in a dangerous situation.
Limansky said while the app could be a valuable tool, it is difficult to reconcile advising students not to pull out their smartphones while walking at night and encouraging them to take advantage of this technology.
“It can be useful, but for now we just got to wait and see,” he said.
