Georgia State’s Campus Safety Crisis What the university is doing to address rising safety issues for students

On April 6th and April 11th Georgia State University President Brian Blake and GSUPD Chief Anthony Coleman addressed students in a public Student Government Association (SGA) meeting and town hall regarding campus safety following a string of violent crimes during the week of the 27th.

Wednesday, March 29th, was the first incident where a large pool party at Reflections got out of hand and gunshots were fired outside. An arrest was made that night on an individual with a weapon but they were not the shooter.

On Saturday, April 1st, there was a pool party at The Mix that got “ridiculously out of hand.” Chief Coleman said that about the 150 people that swarmed the streets outside The Mix and the RaceTrac.

Sunday, April 2nd, marked the last of the string of incidents but was the busiest night. According to Coleman around 200 people were roaming the student housing area and shooting on Piedmont Avenue. The police arrested an individual carrying an AK47 but stated that they were not the initial shooter. GSUPD responded to another call at University Commons where street racers had gathered at a parking lot nearby and another shooting had happened. Coleman said officers were dispatched immediately to control the situation, using de-escalation tactics and police presence to disperse the crowd. The perpetrators could face criminal charges, and students could potentially face additional academic punishment.

“What we want to show is that you can enjoy yourself here but we will not tolerate what happened this past weekend,” Chief Coleman said. “We’ve reached out to our outside police agencies and outside vendors so that we can establish an extreme police presence.”

As a temporary solution, GSUPD stated that they are going to add 30 more police officers within the housing corridor, Piedmont Avenue, Courtland and John Wesly Dobbs. At the townhall, students voiced their concerns about the University’s solutions, questioning the effectiveness of increased policing. Chief Coleman af- firmed that a police presence is absolutely necessary and that safety is the number one priority.

As a solution to the street racers, GSUPD are putting down steel plates to prevent high-speed cruising and drifting. To prevent further traffic violations, GSUPD has stated that they are going to install new license plate scanners and surveillance cameras.

“We are targeting all traffic violations, and all criminal activity, no excuses at all,” Vice-Chief Nicolay Hammond says. “You are going to see Georgia State patrol, you’ll see Fulton County Sheriff, you’ll see Atlanta police working side by side, they all have the same initiative, to keep us safe.”

Although this has been the most recent incident, there have always been concerns about campus safety. In early December last year, a student was shot and killed at the RaceTrac in the housing corridor, sparking alarm amongst students and parents. Chief Operating Officer Jared Abramson and Chief Coleman address these long-term concerns with new investments around campus.

“We are conducting a full campus assessment of every building to identify hotspots where we should be the most focused,” Abramson said. “We will do a full audit on each building to write reviews and recommendations for security details such as locks, training, personnel, and cameras.”

He identified areas such as parking garages and the student center as hotspots for activity, stating that those areas are priorities for new changes. Nighttime front door access to the Student Center is being examined to determine whether access should be limited to students by a certain time. Assessments on residence halls will also include additional training for residence hall assistants.

“We are working very closely with contractors to implement new infrastructure that will improve campus safety across the board,” Abramson said.

These projects include upgrading street lights along walkways, installing high-speed gates, increasing camera surveillance and building emergency call boxes on campus sidewalks. Chief Cole- man and Abramson unveiled these plans to members of the university during a safety demonstration and are now “aggressively working” on building them. They have stated that they do not have an estimated time frame for these changes.

The goal of the infrastructure is to create a set pathway for students to walk and to specify dedicated spaces for students. President Blake believes that creating these pathways will help balance the campus-city dynamic.

“I don’t want us to be an isolated campus, I believe that being a part of the city is what makes Georgia State so authentic,” Blake said. “However, I do think we need to develop special ways for our students to move around our space so they can feel comfortable and safe.”

Another concern that was brought up at the town hall was about the bus schedules and the GSUPD escort service. Students expressed their concerns about the buses not running late enough.On Thursday, April 13th President Blake changed the bus schedule to align with the University Library hours for the blue, green and purple lines. University leaders have also expanded the GSUPD escort system and will continue to publicize the police and safety resources on a new operations website.

Administration and GSUPD heavily encourage students to use the LiveSafe app to report any crimes, suspicious behavior or any other incident that needs police attention. Chief Coleman explained that GSUPD have operators monitoring LiveSafe at all times and that it is the best way to help keep the campus safe.

“With around 75 police officers here in the Atlanta campus we have 150 eyes doing the best we can but we can’t cover every corner. With over 30,000 students however, we can have more than 60,000 eyes keeping each other safe. Download the LiveSafe app and help us keep you safe.”