On-campus safety remains an important asset when choosing where to attend college, and Mississippi State has taken a vested interest in making sure that its campus is protected and secure. The university has several factors that contribute to its safe and secure atmosphere.
“I think we do have a safe campus,” Police Chief Georgia Lindley said. “We work really hard to keep crime rates low.”
The majority of the crimes committed on campus are usually theft from unlocked rooms or buildings on campus, Lindley said.
Campus police take use of an educational method in preventing crime on campus, Lindley said.
“We educate students about crime. We do crime prevention in residence halls, and we have substations set up in Aiken Village, Cresswell Hall and Suttle Hall, and we have a Web site with good crime information,” Lindley said.
The MSU Police Department hires students to serve as campus escorts to prevent crime. The escorts, popularly known as the Bully Patrol, begin work during the evenings in order to further campus safety.
“Bully patrols are our ears and eyes on campus,” Lindley said.
“We monitor all the parking lots and buildings on campus. We are mainly on the lookout for broken glass, lights in buildings being on and just anything suspicious,” Bully Patrol and MSU senior Jason Brewster said. “We also escort people, mostly girls, from buildings back to their dorms at night.”
Although campus escorts are mainly focused on crime prevention, they have caught several individuals in the act of committing a crime.
“Last year, we caught quite a few guys doing drugs,” Brewster said. “We’ve also caught a few burglars.”
The Bully Patrol is available through the MSU Police Department late into the night to escort students to and from buildings on campus.
“During the regular school year, we have two shifts. One is from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. The other is from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. During finals, we also have a shift from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m.,” Brewster said.
Some students feel more secure on campus because of the safety resources available to them.
“I always feel safe walking around campus at night because of the emergency phones around,” sophomore mechanical engineering major Kyle Rogers said.
However, other students are still wary of their safety on campus.
“During the day I feel pretty safe, but at night I’m a lot more worried about my surroundings,” freshman accounting major Jennifer Burke said.
According the Police Department’s 2005 Report, there were 750 criminal incidents reported. Property damage stood as the largest call for service of the year.