Simple safety essentials explained by University Police

Students are back on campus; some have been here for a few years, some are living away from home for the first time. With so much movement and distractions, things like simple safety can sometimes fall to the wayside.

Keeping yourself and your fellow classmates safe should always be in a student’s mind. The IUP police department mentioned several things that any student can do to reduce the number of incidents around school.

“One of the major concerns we have is crosswalk safety,” said Office Tammi Cramer. “So many people are not aware of what’s going on around them when going through these high-traffic areas.”

Drivers must watch pedestrians, and pedestrians must watch drivers. In many cases, individuals are crossing through intersections while texting or looking at iPods and not taking notice of others around them.

“You can watch them, they don’t even know where they are sometimes, Cramer said. They’ll stop and look around and realized they passed their building or their class and they have to go back.”

The often simple but rarely followed advice of “lock up your stuff” was given. Students so often leave their dorm rooms and vehicles unlocked, leaving their possessions open to anyone. Students should also make an effort to keep their things with them at all times.

“It’s easy to leave your stuff on a desk in the library when you go to print out a paper or something,” Cramer said. Students say I was only away for a second, but it only took half a second to take your stuff.”

One way students can deter theft is through the Operation ID program offered by the IUP police department. 

For no fee, individuals can have their name engraved on their things, be it a laptop, an ipod, or whatever they wish. Students who want to take advantage of this can inquire at the IUP police station or officers can come to them.

Students need to document what they keep in their wallets and purses. Items like credit cards can be easily lost or stolen. 

Students should keep phone numbers available to cancel credit cards as soon as they notice one is missing.

Do not carry your social security card with you; keep it in a safe place or a safety deposit box. Identity theft becomes significantly easier once someone gets that document.

Students who feel they are in danger should not hesitate to use the blue-light phones located throughout campus. 

Every time a phone is activated, university police will respond to that location, regardless of someone is speaking to the police through the phone or not. 

If someone doesn’t feel safe waiting at one phone, he or she can proceed to the next phone and activate that one, and so on. 

Police will be able to track the path of the person and provide assistance.

IUP police can also provide a walking escort to anyone on campus, student, family or visitor, to any place on campus if they need such assistance. This service can be used by both males and females.

“I’ve probably walked more males than females,” Cramer said.