Friday night started off just like any other for Kelsie Shreeman. She got ready to go running. She was enjoying the brisk evening air. But that all changed.
While completing her nightly run, a campus cop pulled her over and told her that it wasn’t safe for her to be out running and then escorted her back to her room.
Shreeman, a freshman history major, didn’t know why she had been told to return to her room or what had happened to make campus unsafe.
“I was a little scared, considering I was out by myself and I didn’t know what had happened,” said Shreeman.
Shreeman’s story is just one of many girls, who’ve found themselves wondering how safe the campus is after last week’s abduction outside of Hemphill Hall.
While incidents like this are rare, it happens. And students need to be aware of their surroundings.
Although the incident may have unnerved Shreeman during her run, she also felt that the ULM Police Department did their job in ensuring her safety.
“I think [ULMPD] stands up to its standards, because they went out of their way to make sure I was safe, and I got back to my dorm.”
This sentiment was also shared by Eden Fife, a junior medical laboratory science major.
Fife said that the incident on campus has made her a little weary, but for the most part she does not worry about her safety on campus.
“I don’t feel that much less safe than I did before,” said Fife. “I think [ULMPD] do their best. I’ve never heard of anything such as that before.”
Lt. Steven Mahon, acting chief for the ULMPD, talked about new procedures that the police department is taking to prevent incidents like the abduction from happening on campus in the future.
“We have increased our patrol efforts; we’ve re-directed some other people that were on different patrols and saturated them around dorm areas as well as just patrolling around classroom areas,” Mahon said.
He also said there are over 300 access controlled doors, over 850 closed circuit cameras that are monitored by the ULMPD, 23 emergency call boxes around campus and a 24/7 escort service for any students to insure the safety of the students.
Mahon also mentioned some preventitive safety measures, which students can take.
Students should report any suspicious looking vehicles or individuals, use the buddy system when walking on campus, report any busted lights, report any illegal activities, never prop any access controlled doors open and never let any un-authorized persons into the dorms.
Mahon said if any student feels endangered, the first thing he or she should do is to contact the ULMPD immediately. The ULMPD extension is 5350 from any on-campus phone or simply call 9-1-1.
