The Department of Public Safety has made extensive changes to improve security and its relationship with students.

“Last year was particularly challenging for that first eight weeks, and we had to quickly ramp up patrol activities. This year we came into it planning for all that,” DPS Chief Tony Callisto said.

DPS is hoping to improve campus security forces by pushing proactive efforts to reduce crime. These efforts include increasing police presence and building better relationships with the students on campus right when the semester starts.

The University Area Crime-Control Team was formed last October after two months of reports of various crimes: gang activity; a gun shot was heard on Marshall Street; and a stabbing happened during Orange Madness in October.

DPS has more than 500 cameras providing almost 800 views, including the entrances and exits of every residence hall and every entry onto the Quad. Security cameras are perched along Waverly Avenue, the Dome and a bird’s eye view atop Ernie Davis Hall with a long-range zoom, Callisto said.

He added that South Campus is also nearly covered in cameras and that DPS is constantly looking for new locations where the surveillance program can be expanded.

The videos all feed to the video wall in DPS’ communication center, where at least eight television screens watch over the campus. The footage recorded is all digital and available to DPS for several weeks.

“We can go back to any date and time and if you have a camera in that location, we often can produce video evidence from that and use it to follow up as a lead,” Callisto said.

DPS Commander Ryan Beauford said the surveillance footage has helped close several investigations already.

DPS is only permitted to install them on campus, Callisto said. For crime-ridden regions such as Oakwood Cemetery and Thornden Park — where the cameras can’t reach — DPS has focused on several patrolling and awareness programs, he said.

After seeing UACT’s success during its pilot program in 2012, Callisto said the program is coming back again this year fully-fledged. The team is a joint-effort between DPS officers and Syracuse police. The two police forces work together to prevent crime in surrounding neighborhoods.

“UACT is really looking at the opportunity to deter crime and be a rapid response team, to deal with any situations that might come up and catch criminals in the event,” he said.

Students can expect to see a heavily increased amount of officers on patrol during the weekends for the first eight weeks of this semester, he said. Callisto added that these first weeks are when the campus is most vulnerable to crime.

UACT is one of three patrol units DPS will be deploying this semester, along with Neighborhood Safety Patrol and Orange Watch, Callisto said.

“All those combined are really the efforts at making sure the off-campus areas where we can’t put cameras are places where there’s a lot of presence,” he said.

The Neighborhood Safety Patrol is the unit that responds to neighborhood complaints, shutting down parties and events that get out of hand for surrounding residents, Callisto said.

He described Orange Watch as a program in which DPS officers drive around the areas surrounding SU, looking for students who are walking alone. They offer them rides to safety if the student feels endangered, which Callisto said is a major part of DPS’ awareness and outreach program.

For high-crime areas where DPS can’t patrol, such as Thornden Park and Oakwood Cemetery, Beauford, DPS commander, said it is important to make sure students know to avoid them.

“Part of our function is to inform students, to tell them that’s probably not somewhere you want to be,” Beauford said. “The officer’s union members, in conjunction with crime prevention staff members, are always looking for opportunities to get in front of students.”

During the first few weeks of the semester, DPS is putting together several on-campus events to accomplish this goal, Beauford said. They’ve already planned an ice cream social on Sept. 25 and are offering free bike tune-ups on Sept. 7 for a bicycle safety seminar.

Callisto said an important part of his goals for DPS is to improve the relationship between students and public safety officers.  He mentioned that SPD Chief Frank Fowler shared the same goal, and SPD would be working heavily to improve its relationship with the university.

Beauford said it will be difficult, but believes the key is opening up communication with students.

“We’re such a global community here that I don’t think it’s one issue you can identify with. It’s a challenge to always try to find out the issue by listening to what the students need and what we need to do to do our jobs better,” he said.

Last year, the Student Association’s public safety committee worked closely with DPS, which former committee head Belen Crisp said she believes helped improve conditions.

“I believe it has led to positive changes to make campus life safer because of the communication between DPS and students. As long as DPS and students communicate, SU will continue to be made into a safer place,” Crisp said in an email.

Currently, SA does not have a head of the public safety committee.

The former chair of the Student Life Committee, PJ Alampi, said SA helped with DPS’ student outreach, but still feels that more can be done with the current public safety committee.

He said SA’s 56^th Session made a lot of progress in building a link between students and DPS, but sees a lot of space to grow for the 57^th Session.

“We wanted to create student feedback for DPS to allow students to interact on a more surface level,” he said. “I believe that in the past, Student Association has been a huge contribution to what it is now, but at this point, it’s not enough to provide great support.”

Callisto said that DPS’ most important goal is to have a working relationship with students and provide opportunities for feedback.

“Getting connected with students, getting our message out, those are the biggest improvements that we need to make,” he said. “And hearing from students on what that they think would be helpful, that’s how we’re going to be able to improve.”

alng@syr.edu

Published on August 29, 2013 at 2:14 am

Contact Alfred: alng@syr.edu

@alfredwkng