The university’s most recent campus alert being broadcasted more than 17 hours later, Alexis Williams, Georgia State student, said Georgia State Police Department (GSUPD) could do a better job at sending out timelier campus alerts.
The incident was an armed robbery in Georgia State’s E Parking Lot on Feb. 22 at 5:04 p.m. The alert came out the following Monday on Feb. 23 at 11:28 a.m, according to a Campus Broadcast Alert email sent to students.
Williams said students’ safety can be put at risk, since the campus alert was sent at that time.
“The time they tell us that a crime has happened is more than 12 hours later and they still haven’t caught the suspects so it puts more students at risk because we have no idea what to be aware of,” she said.
Another criminal incident involving a female student confronted by two men on campus happened on Oct. 2, 2014 at 7:20 p.m. One man tried to grab her waist, but she screamed, according to the Campus Broadcast Alert email.
The following day a report was filed about two black men who followed a female student at 12:30 a.m. The campus alert for both incidents weren’t sent until 3:19 p.m. that day, according to the Campus Broadcast Alert email.
GSUPD’s campus alert process
Chief of GSUPD Connie Sampson said the reason campus alerts aren’t broadcasted when a crime occurs is because a process is involved. She said the process consists of drafting, sending and broadcasting a notice through different channels.
She also said there is a difference between an emergency notification and a timely notice.
An emergency notification of incoming dangerous weather conditions are broadcasted faster because the process isn’t as involved as a timely notice is, according to Sampson.
She said emergency notifications are sent through various channels, such as email, phones and social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
“Now, a timely notice comes under a different set of standards and that usually has to do with a criminal incident that has occurred on campus where there may be threatening criminal activity to the community,” Sampson said.
Sampson said, her management staff, and the police department are in charge of making sure students are aware of campus alerts by sending the broadcasts out to them.
Also, the department works with Georgia State’s Public Relations Department to ensure messages are broadcasted to social media.
There are numerous ways GSUPD contacts and tries to give students information in a timely manner, according to Sampson.
Getting attention from alerts
However, Sampson said GSUPD is careful about what is broadcasted to students to avoid a crying wolf scenario.
“You’ve heard of the term, crying wolf?” she said. “What we’ve seen throughout not just our campus but other campuses is these things go out about anything that happening whether it’s phone or book theft that people just stop paying attention to them.”
Crying wolf is when an individual asks for help too many times when it’s unnecessary, which inhibits the help they receive when they do need it, according to the Online Cambridge Dictionary.
In this case, Sampson said she has seen students at Georgia State and other campuses lack attention if they receive an influx of alerts. She also said incidents such as phone theft or book theft, won’t be broadcasted to prevent the crying wolf scenario.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) handles situations similarly, because if the environment is saturated with too many notifications then people lose interest, according to Sampson.
The GBI is an independently run agency that assists in Georgia’s criminal justice system, according to their website.
Williams said timely campus alerts would help her know what areas to avoid.
“…I’m not sure what to be looking out for or what area to keep clear of at night or when I’m on a late night CVS run, because we all know there are some sketchy people out,” she said.
However, Sampson said all areas are equal in their safeness.
“Whether they are on campus, whether they are at Lenox or whether they are going out on a late nightclub event, there’s no particular area that’s more safe than others,” she said.
Sampson advised students to pay attention to their surroundings regardless of where they are. She also said students should have GSUPD’s phone number programmed into their cell phones in case they see anything suspicious.
Williams also encourages students to use Georgia State’s escort service.
“That’s always used to stay safe because the GSUPD will also walk with you or take you wherever you need to go,” she said.
By calling the escort service’s number, students can be escorted anywhere on campus, including Peachtree Center, Five Points MARTA Stations and commercial parking lots located near campus, according to Georgia State’s Safety and Security page.
“One security guard is assigned to the Escort Van from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. Monday through Thursday and 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. Friday when classes are in session. When Daylight savings time is in effect, the times are subject to change,” the website states.
Georgia State student Brandon Hayden, Georgia State student, said the university helps students by sending out campus alerts, no matter the timeliness.
“A lot of people think Atlanta is such a scary place, but honestly we only get maybe two campus alerts a month,” he said. “For a place like Atlanta, that’s pretty good. I really don’t check the time at which they send the campus alert, but I’m just thankful they send it at all. Things that happen on campus need to be known.”
Kristen Brown, a Georgia State student, said there hasn’t been many campus alerts.
“That either tells me that our campus is very safe, or we’re only getting a fraction of the updates and alerts for crimes that are actually going on. Seeing the GSU police on the street definitely help[s] me feel safe on campus, but it looks like they’re only surrounding the dorms.” she said.
She also said more updates would benefit students.
“As students in the city, we go outside the limits of the campus on an everyday basis,” Brown said. “ I think it would be helpful to get updates that go just a little beyond the campus, even on crimes that don’t involve GSU students.”
