After the events of last October, the security on Lasell campus has been an ever growing concern. With various safety features already installed on campus, many wonder what else the college will do to improve the security.
“We have 206 cameras around campus, and the number is growing,” said acting Police Chief John Kennedy.
Cameras are mainly located in the hallways, entrances, exits, and roofs of the residential halls; but can capture the scene all around them. Even though these are helpful, there are still many areas in every residential building that aren’t covered.
“There are more security cameras being installed on campus constantly, right now the department is focusing on adding cameras to the second biggest residential hall on campus, Forest Hall,” said Kennedy. The cameras will be installed and ready by the start of the fall semester.
Other than the residence buildings, there are also cameras in the parking garages and parking lots on campus. Chanel Mendonca, junior, knows this all too well. After a long day of classes Mendonca came out to central parking lot to find a common but unfortunate scene.
“When I got out of class I saw the huge dent and scratch on the side of my car and immediately went to campus police. When I went there and told them what happened, there didn’t seem to be any sense of urgency and no procedure that they have for situations like this…The officer scribbled my name and number and license plate on a random piece of paper and explained to me that when he gets a chance he would check the one camera we have in the center of the lot…that only works “sometimes”… So I knew it was a bad sign from there,” Mendonca said. Unfortunately, the camera in the central lot wasn’t working that day, eliminating evidence for the accident ultimately Mendonca was responsible for paying for the damage.
When asked about this incident, Officer Kennedy knew the case well.
“It (the accident) just happened to be around the same time the camera out there was stuck, due to an unknown issue, presumably weather related. The camera out there has been since fixed, and can pan from side to side covering the whole parking lot, and can even zoom in,” he said.
Another security feature on campus are the blue emergency poles. These poles are actually telephones that with one push of the button will connect a person to the Campus Police Department. There are a total of sixteen on campus, spread out between residence halls and academic buildings. Officer Kennedy did not report any issues with the poles.
Campus police is also offering RAD (Rape, Aggression, and Defense) classes, taught by Lieutenant Michelle Leblanc herself. The program is geared towards teaching women self-defense tactics, but everyone is invited to attend the class. Kennedy also said that campus police is always staffed, and is available to pick anyone up during the hours the shuttle isn’t running. As for other improvements the school is making, card access will soon be available at every residential area on campus once the summer is over.