USG, parents react to the university’s new crime map replacing neighborhood safety notices

Jessica Orozco
Fri, 11 Mar 2022 02:25:41 +0000
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Ohio State will no longer issue neighborhood safety notices for off-campus crime, and will instead update a crime map. Credit: Danny Fogarty | Assistant Campus Editor

Some parents and students have differing opinions on the value of replacing Ohio State’s neighborhood safety notices with an interactive crime map.

The university announced Thursday it would replace neighborhood safety notices with the crime map to align with a third-party safety assessment, which recommended ways to improve off-campus crime reporting. The LexisNexis Community Crime Map is pre-programmed by the university with reports of aggravated assault, residential burglary and robbery in a one-mile radius of campus.

University spokesperson Ben Johnson said in a statement the new policy is a response to students asking for a visual map.?

“The university customized the map to provide students and parents a one click solution,” Johnson said. “We’re told by [Columbus Division of Police] that the map updates three times daily.”

Angela Fredriksson, co-founder of Buckeyes for a Safe Ohio State, said in a statement the map is not the solution the group was hoping for, as they wanted to improve the safety notices without getting rid of them. She said they want the university to use social media to share crime information and use a more immediate system of reporting.

“We have been using this Community Crime Map as a resource for a long time now, so it is nothing new,” Fredriksson, whose daughter transferred from Ohio State because of safety concerns, said. “It’s fine for collecting reports and data, but it does nothing to make students aware of serious crimes as they are happening.”

With the map, users can see reported crimes up to a five-mile radius from a selected location. Users can opt in to notifications of updates to the map and specify a frequency and radius with which they would like to be alerted.

Undergraduate Student Government Vice President Anna Valerius said in a statement the crime map was an idea that originated from USG as a response to concerns that neighborhood safety notices were ineffective.

“We want to make sure that students are doing what they can to remain informed and pursue information they want to have available to them, with the caveat that this still means Ohio State has a duty to provide resources to its community,” Valerius, a fourth-year in political science, said.?

Johnson said some parent and student groups have recognized the map as an enhancement to campus safety.

However, both Valerius and Fredriksson said they have suggestions for improvement.

Valerius said while the map is a step in the right direction, USG has shared feedback with the university on improvements to accessibility and ease of access of the website.

Fredriksson said the map will delay students’ knowledge of off-campus crime more than neighborhood safety notices, as it is not updated instantaneously.

“Students need immediate notices. Not day after reports,” Fredriksson said. “They must be made aware of the specifics of serious crimes as it is happening in their neighborhood.”

Jessica Langer contributed reporting.