Many DOPS Call Boxes Don't Work

[StPetersburgHoya (Inactive)]

www.thehoya.com/news/091605/news2.cfm

I'm glad that someone has started to complain about this - it is rediculous that I cannot walk through the Henle fishbowl safely at night because the blue light phone there doesn't work. DOPS and Facilities have been promising that this new system would be in place for over a year now - it is terrible that they cannot give the students some basic protection.

[Jack]

Question- how would a working bluelight phone make it safer for you to walk through the Henle fishbowl at night? Do people honestly feel unsafe there (or elsewhere on campus)? Doesn't everyone carry a cellphone anyway?

I agree that the safety phone situation is a joke, but more along the lines of them not being particularly useful compared with cameras, lighting, and DOPS patrols. At least they are eyesores.

[StPetersburgHoya (Inactive)]

I don't, per se, feel unsafe anywhere on campus - however there have been asaults that have occured on campus in the past and even once in a freshmen dorm. However, the areas that I do feel unsafe in are those just off campus or on it near Burlieth, which has had a lot of assaults in it in the past 2 years. The call boxes are supposedly a direct cellular connection to DOPS and it also takes the immediate priority of anything that DOPS does and they promise to respond to the incident within 2 -4 minutes - so it is - in theory - effective. As to the Henle fishbowl - there are a lot of drunk people going through it any given Thursday, Friday, or Saturday night and there has definitely been people shouting at each other in it and some broken glass - but nothing that makes me feel incredibly unsafe. However, there have been cases of thefts from Henle Apartments in the last year so I know that they aren't completely safe.

I don't know if DOPS does patrol this area - I honestly haven't seen them - maybe its because Henle isn't exactly accesible on those snazy chariots DOPS purchased for itself recently - and maybe its because they have had their party policing powers defanged by Tod Olson. As far as lighting goes - the fishbowl has very little and I don't even know if the University has cameras outside.

[joehoya07]

I'm firmly convinced that the blue call boxes were "installed" merely to give the parents of potential new Hoyas the feeling that their daughters will be safe here. The fact is, 99 percent of students have cell phones. Moreover, I doubt whether DOPS would "respond" to a call from one the the emergency boxes promptly enough to make much of a difference anyway.

[StPetersburgHoya (Inactive)]

I have never seen one of the boxes in action either - all I am saying is that DOPS has promised on several occassions that if you use them they will be there in 2-4 minutes.

[hoyaboy1]

stpetersburghoya said:

I have never seen one of the boxes in action either - all I am saying is that DOPS has promised on several occassions that if you use them they will be there in 2-4 minutes.

Which would be 2-4 minutes too late if there actually was someone trying to rob/rape you.

[AustinHoya03]

One of my friends once tried to call 911 from his cell phone when two hotheads got into a bar brawl with the bouncer. Apparently, when you call 911 from a cell, it sends you through a series of confirmations to make sure that yes, you really do want to call 911. He said it took him about a minute and 1/2 to get through to an operator. This was a couple years ago, so I don't know if this problem has been fixed, but if not that means the blue light phones serve a purpose that cell phones can't.

[hoya4ever]

I was walking behind a tour today and according to a tour guide some parents that were touring decided to test them out. DPS did arrive (their time btw is supposed to be sixty seconds) and the parents decided they worked.

[FLHoya]

hoya4ever said:

I was walking behind a tour today and according to a tour guide some parents that were touring decided to test them out. DPS did arrive (their time btw is supposed to be sixty seconds) and the parents decided they worked.

Huh. You know when I was a Tour Guide one of the things they warned us about was that parents had tried to do that on tours before. Therefore, we were supposed to advise people that the things DID work and DON'T try them out. I guess they weren't lying.

[StPetersburgHoya (Inactive)]

Just a sidebar - sometimes Georgetown parents can be some of the most annoying people as a collective group - things like that and the way that they will take any administrator, professor, or university employee aside and berate them (as though this were some sort of a prep-school where they could get there way by doing that) during New Student Orientation and Parents' Weekends boggles my mind.

[hoyaboy1]

I was up by the Observatory for a bio lab in the ponds there today, and laughed when I saw a DOPS call box stuck off in a corner covered in garbage bags.