Though crime has declined in America for decades, the large increase in college students and greater visibility of crime on campus has driven a demand for campus safety technology.
The products and apps that have proliferated are designed to enable people “to dodge risky situations whether they’re on and off campus,” according to BostInno.
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One app, RapidSOS, is used to “send critical data to emergency dispatchers” via any means possible during a 911 call. Another company, BulletBlocker, makes backpacks and other materials that are bulletproof. Others track a student’s movements or help track dangerous incidents around campus or a city.
Campus safety weighs on the minds of students and parents when looking at prospective colleges. The Daily Beast has ranked campuses based on safety, and U.S. News and World Report announced last year that they’d public college crime statistics to help students using their rankings in making informed decisions. Safety concerns have animated opposition to guns on campus as well as support for guns on campus.
Steps taken to improve campus safety are admirable, but they should be understood in context. Students should be aware of crime on campus, but with the knowledge that the world they live in is much safer than the one their parents were raised in. High-profile incidents, such as the recent tragedy in Paris, have prompted campuses to form committees and analyze campus safety. Large-scale acts of violence are extremely uncommon, especially on college campuses, and that is part of the reason why they receive such media attention when a campus shooting happens.
A benefit of safety apps and products is to calm those hypersensitive to concerns over campus safety. Even if the actual level of campus safety makes those apps unnecessary, they can bring a peace of mind to some students or helicopter parents. With LiveSafe, tracking incidents improves reporting and awareness, and campus or local police can target those areas to reduce crime.
The innovative and new approaches to campus safety are encouraging; police departments can’t prevent every crime, and individuals taking initiative to protect themselves or be aware of dangers show an engaged public. A possible downside, however, could be a “safety” argument trumping anything else, even when the proposed solution doesn’t improve the quality of life for students or staff.
