With an emergency text warning students to stay away from Dairyrimple and May Street to an email warning students to be aware of a suspicious person around the Westside of campus, the LSU community is starting to question safety on campus.
According to an article printed in the Reveille on September 30th, LSU’s crime rates for 2009 were the highest they’ve been in five years. For 2009, the reported crimes per 1,000 students at LSU were 40.3.
 LSUPD is responding to student’s uneasy feelings. Criminal patrol units and an increase of officers in certain areas are a few precautions they are taking to soothe these feelings. 
Sergeant Blake Tabor wants to ensure students that every “unusual” incident that is occurring is being investigated and handled. LSUPD’s goal is patrol the various areas of campus.
“We patrol every area equally and distribute officers so that each populated area is patrolled.” Tabor says. “We do however patrol areas near Chimes street by the bars at night to control situations that might happen.”
A safety alert was sent out to the West campus residents in an e-mail, warning them about a white male who poses as an LSU Facilities worker.
Tabor explains that while students should be cautious of this incident, the situation may simmer down.
“WCA is one of those areas where we tend to encounter more suspicious person cases because of Astor Street being a thorough-fair through campus to Highland Road to Nicholson Drive.”
  Some students feel that LSUPD can be more effective. They feel that LSU’s line of defense is not efficient starting with the Emergency Text Messaging System.
Sophomore Lucky James says the time difference in this system could be crucial.
“Me and My roommate got the text about the incident on Dairyrimple and May Street about five minutes apart,” James says.”Those few minutes could crucial to someone’s safety.”
Tabor says that while this system is receiving heat from the aftermath of this event, LSUPD is satisfied with these results.
“To say that we are reaching a database of subscribers 35,000 people, technology being what it is, it is going to take some time to get them but that 8-12 minutes indicates the system worked pretty well.”
Tabor wants to students to know if they ever have feelings of suspicion or feel in danger, they shouldn’t hesitate to call LSUPD.
Farrah Reed
[email protected]
504-496-1535
https://www.lsureveille.com/news/campus-crime-at-five-year-high-1.2349186
http://appl003.lsu.edu/pubsafety/lsupolice.nsf/index
http://www.lsu.edu/safety/txtmsg.shtml
http://appl003.lsu.edu/PubSafety/lsupolice.nsf/$Content/Crime+Statistics