Mathematics graduate student Jake Weber hosted a safety forum in the Student Union Monday in collaboration with the Graduate Student Association for an open discussion about safety concerns within the LSU and Baton Rouge community.

Weber, who is from Waterloo, Iowa, and previously attended the University of Northern Iowa, said he felt the impacts of crime more while at LSU.

“The number of occurrences that were serious crimes in a row really stood out to me. I mean, I was burglarized at the beginning of August…between that we had a shooting, a kidnapping during the first week…I said, ‘oh my gosh, we need to look at doing something,’ because I’ve definitely been brought up in the way that you can’t complain about anything if you’re not willing to try to make a difference yourself,” Weber said.

Weber met with Council Member Carolyn Coleman in September to discuss his concerns, who then encouraged him to create the forum. 

The panelists included Coleman of District 10, which covers the 70802 zip code; Myron Daniels, Baton Rouge Police Department Administrative Chief; Bart Thomson, Chief of Police at LSU Police Department; Mayor-President of East Baton Rouge Parish Sharon Weston Broome; and Jazzika Matthews, director of operations with the Office of the Mayor-President.

Patrol Division Captain Reginald Berry with LSUPD and Abbi Rocha Laymoun with LSU’s Office of Communications and University Relations were also present.

The forum was held in a town-hall style format, with Weber leading the discussion. The panelists began by explaining what measures they currently have in place to promote safety within the community.

Coleman said she participates in various events to see what problems are affecting her constituents, and she wanted to help solve the issues students were concerned about.

“Don’t look around at who’s not here, look at who is here – and we’ve only just begun…I am here to hear,” Coleman said. 

Thompson said that the community outreach approach LSU Police started four years ago has been “a huge success” so far. Part of the effort includes having officers go out into the community and meet with student organizations.

Berry said LSU Police is constantly working with Greek Life, the largest group on campus, and encourages other student organizations to reach out to them.

“Anybody with time for us to be there, we’ll be there. We don’t have to be in charge, we just want to listen and bring the information back and see what we can do to make our campus safe and secure,” Thompson said.

Thompson also said lighting on campus was one of the biggest ways to make students feel safe, and currently, they’re going “in the right direction” with progress. He said that there are currently 25 portable light trailers around campus that will temporarily illuminate the area until construction is completed.

LSU Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer Kimberly Lewis said they plan to have the lighting project completed by the summer of 2023.

Thompson also emphasized cameras as being one of the biggest deterrents against crime, noting that LSU has over 1,700 security cameras on campus monitored by officers. Thompson also encouraged students to download the LSU Shield app so students could contact them as quickly as possible. 

“[LSU Police] could be anywhere in three minutes…if you see something, say something,” Thompson said.

Daniels outlined BRPD’s strategic plan, which he said focused on four core areas: reducing violent crime, civic engagement and partnership, leveraging use of technology, and effective and efficient police service. 

Daniels noted a change in policy which now allows officers to work in Tigerland.

“For a very long time we wouldn’t allow police officers to work at bars and clubs. It was because we knew we had an issue and we couldn’t fix it that we actually amended our policy to allow it,” Daniels said. “So when you see that increased personnel over there, that goes back to a change in policy but also the collaboration with our business community as well as our university to help in any way that we could.”

An audience member from the Freshman Leadership Council said it was “scary” to hear about the crime on campus and asked the BRPD and LSU Police representatives how they were keeping officers accountable.

“We hold ourselves accountable for crime…we set benchmarks for ourselves within our individual divisions,” Daniels said.

Thompson said that all LSU Police officers who deal with the public wear body cameras, and all campus crime statistics are reported on the LSU website under the Clery Act.

“We’re not perfect, but we’re going to do the best we can,” Thompson said.

When asked about the recent bi-annual report on Power-Based Violence that came out earlier this month, Thompson said the number of reports increased as victims became more comfortable coming forward.

“The better job we do, those numbers will then go up because then I think the victims and survivors are more comfortable in reporting…And the changes in Title IX, the things that we’ve [put] in place because of the numbers, you’re going to see those numbers and hopefully at some point yes, that starts going down,” Thompson said “…So we do look at those numbers…We look at all that and that’s how we determine where we put more officers, where we put more light.”

During the meeting, Weston Broome brought up the shooting at the University of Virginia and the alleged homicides at the University of Idaho that occurred over the weekend.

“This is a timely discussion, unfortunately, because of what just happened with two universities yesterday, University of Virginia, students at the University of Idaho, so the security and safety of our college community…is a top priority,” Weston Broome said. “…Your feedback is vitally important to whatever we do to address safety for our students.”

Weber said he felt the forum was a success, and he hopes to continue active communication between the panelists and the LSU community.

“I hope through this event, I’ve been part of that agent of change for students. I hope I’ve been part of that agent of change for these administrators, saying what needs to be done, what can be done and who to partner with,” Weber said.