The Kennesaw State Police Department needs to put more effort into making on-campus crime information more easily accessible to students so that crucial reports to our safety reach our ears quicker.
Most KSU students had no idea there was an on-campus rape reported in September 2017. If you’re included in this group, join the club — I didn’t either. While the police on our campuses do a great job of protecting us and logging crimes, safety threats such as these are rarely communicated to students in ways that will reach us easily.
If anyone wanted to find out what crimes were reported to KSU police, it would take patience and determination to locate them. The KSU police keep excellent, detailed crime logs of everything that happens on both the Kennesaw and Marietta campuses. However, without being knowledgeable of the website’s structure those reports would be difficult to find.
Only by looking up the KSU Police Department’s homepage online, scrolling down through the left sidebar to find “clery/crime info,” scrolling again to click on “daily crime log” and then downloading individual crime logs sorted on a monthly basis can you find the safety threats reported on our campuses — and even then the logs are massive.
January’s log alone was 15 pages, and only a few weeks into February crimes such as harassment, possession of dangerous drugs, pedestrians hit by vehicles, suspicious people and vehicles on campus, theft and even terroristic threats were reported, according to the crime logs. All were reported without any notifications sent out to the students that KSU police is sworn to protect.
KSU police is taking steps in the right direction — anyone can visit their Facebook page, which, according to the Pew Research Center, is a platform that 81 percent of 18 to 29-year-olds are active on. However, easily accessible notifications of crimes are seldom.
Useful ways for KSU police to reach out to students would be through timely text notifications, Twitter and even Snapchat. Putting forth more effort on platforms that are already popular among students would create a safer and better-informed university.
Students aren’t begging for their phones to be blown up constantly with every report, but being more frequently informed would be better. Through a Twitter account, the department could send out notifications of crimes in more detail for those that choose to follow.
Other universities are using these methods, and KSU police should take note. For example, Vanderbilt University issues frequent timely notices, according to their Division of Administration page. Officers there will send out timely notifications according to strict conditions such as murder, sex offenses, theft and assault. If we were to adopt these methods as well, it would be easier for students to stay informed.
Considering the crimes that KSU police face daily, students are lucky to have them protecting our campus. Thanks to our officers and our suburban location, KSU couldn’t be much safer. However, in instances where crimes are committed, students would prefer to be informed through timely notifications.
