Former Head of the Crime Prevention Division at Vanderbilt University Marlene Hall once heard a seemingly far-fetched idea.

The concept of a personal security system — involving triangulation and student tracking — superceding campus blue lights eventually faded. But for Syracuse University students, the once improbable idea may soon become reality.

The Department of Public Safety and the Student Association are researching whether personal handheld security systems can work at SU.

“It’s something that is brand new on the table,” said Hall, now the Director of Public Safety at SU. “It is important to get a feel for what people want.”

SU would not be the first university to institute such a system. The State University of New York at Oswego was the second school in the country to install a handheld security system in 2000, said Larry Jarret, assistant chief of University Police at SUNY-Oswego. The SUNY-Oswego campus still has blue lights but the personal system, called the Security Escort, has reduced the number of false alarms and is better for overall security, Jarret said.

“The problem with the blue light system is that if a student had a problem they had to run to a blue light and they could not leave or security would not know where they had gone,” he said. “If the student was being chased this is a problem.”

The system at SUNY-Oswego, installed and maintained by Security Products Inc. of Rochester, consists of a small receiver that can fit on a key ring or in someone’s pocket. When activated it sends a signal to multiple receivers on campus which use signal strength and the positioning of receivers to triangulate the student’s position, Jarret said. Once the signal is activated the university police receive a location on a map where the escort system was activated. After the activation, university police can maintain the signal and find the location of the student in trouble, he added. The system even provides the police force with a picture of the student who activated the alarm and other information about the student if it has been databased, Jarret said.

Victor Hill, Senior Vice President at Security Products Inc. (the maker of the security escort system), said one of the main benefits of the system is its ability to track a student who, in danger, must run. Another benefit is that each transmitter has its own unique identification, which has lead to fewer false alarms as students could be immediately identified if they intentionally triggered the alarm without just cause, he added.

Jarret said few accidental alarms have occured at SUNY-Oswego because the device requires a student to squeeze two buttons simultaneously for a signal to be transmitted to university police. The false alarms that have occurred have resulted from a student’s friend grabbing the device and pressing the buttons when he or she did not know what the transmitter was, or when the transmitter became submerged in water, he added.

The Security Escort system has other uses than helping victimized students. The device also helps students with disabilities who fall or in some other way need help, Jarret said.

“If students with a disability get caught in a bad situation it is a means for getting help,” he said.

One possible problem with the system is students believing university police can track them at any time. This has not posed a problem at SUNY-Oswego because the transmitter system requires a signal to be sent out to determine a student’s location, and students do not have to rent the transmitters from the bookstore, Jarret said.

The system requiring a signal is not the only one on the market, which could lead to problems. Other systems use the Global Positioning System to determine the location of students, Jarret said.

“One thing that we don’t want is something that would be the Big Brother affect,” Hall said. “ You would not be tracked unless you wanted to be tracked.”

The rental cost of $50 per student could not accompany the system to SU. Hill said the cost per year for each student would most likely be between $150-200 for five to 10 years to recover installation expenses. Finding the exact installation cost would require a complete study of the campus, would require a large number of receivers, and the cost would likely extend into the millions, he added.

“We are looking for the least expensive system that still has the best quality,” Hall said.

Hall has met with SA members several times and with the entire assembly on Nov. 4 to discuss the possibility of pursuing this system, said SA president-elect Andrew Thomson, a junior double major in information management and political science.

Hall said the systems’ effectiveness requires investigation as well as financial feasibility. Several forms of the handheld system exist besides the security escort system made by Security Products and SU would need to research them, Hall added.

“I think the reception at the SA meeting was positive about research,” she said.

Thomson said none of the details of a system have been worked out but he likes the idea.

“It is definitely an option I plan on pursuing as SA president,” he said.

Published on November 13, 2002 at 12:00 pm