"Our patrols cover the whole campus, including the outlying areas. Our on-campus patrols are combinations of mobile car patrols and bike patrols. You see officers riding bikes and wearing shorts during the summer, those are our bike guys. We've have had bike patrol for about six years now. It's very successful and is a great public relations tool.

Overall Safety

Without throwing a bunch of statistics at you, Penn State's crime rate is lower than Pennsylvania's as a whole. And Pennsylvania's is lower than the nation's as a whole. In general, Penn State is a safe place to be.

Walking around Campus

Even though Penn State is a safe place, you should still use common sense while walking around especially at night. If you don't feel safe, you can call our Escort Service, the number is 865-walk. A member of the Escort Service will come out and escort you to your location. They are screened by University Police Services so you can trust your escort. Another thing you can do is to consult our night map which shows the best places to walk on campus. It shows the safest routes to take, how heavily they are traveled and how well they are lit. There are also emergency call stations located around campus which have a direct line to Police Services. They are marked by a blue light and are available 24 hours a day.

You mainly have to use common sense.

Living on Campus

In the dorms we have a two-fold plan. There is staff security and electronic security. We have a card access security system in each of the residence halls. This card access allows only residents of that particular residence hall to gain admittance. That is done by a card reader which reads the magnetic stripe on the back of the Student's ID card.

We also have student employees, our residence hall security unit. They patrol the halls on a regular basis making sure that things are functioning properly, that doors aren't propped open and to make sure that unwanted or suspicious people are not roaming the residence hall areas." Employees don't necessarily live in these halls they are just assigned to work there on particular nights. (This is different from RAs (resident assistants) who live in the residence hall.) Generally there are one or two student security officers per residence area. So in North Halls, which is a smaller area, you might find one person on patrol, whereas in East Halls, which is larger, there might be two or more.

Bikes and Patrols

Our patrols cover the whole campus, including the outlying areas. Our on-campus patrols are a combination of mobile car patrols and bike patrols. You see officers riding bikes and wearing shorts during the summer, those are our bike guys. We've have had bike patrol for about six years now. It's very successful and is a great public relations tool.

Officers seem a lot less approachable when they are in their cars. When the guys are wearing shorts and cool shades, people like to ask them about the bike, what he's doing, if he likes it, and what components he has. They try to cover the areas that cars can't reach: mainly around campus and little nooks and crannies, pathways and other out-of-the way spots. It's really good for preventive type things too besides being out and just visible. Being part of the bike patrole is voluntary; especially in the summer, there is a long waiting list. I was one of the original bike cops. I did that for three years. You get great exercise and the shorts are nice in the summer. You get to talk to a lot of people. It gets you a good chance to be a kindof ambassador.

Other modes of transportation

Roller blading is permitted on any sidewalk on campus. If you are wearing roller blades you are considered a pedestrian. Pedestrians should not be routinely walking in the street; neither should rollerbladers. Rollerblades are an acceptable and popular mode of transportation on campus. Skateboards, however, are not allowed on campus.

The activity drops a lot for us in Summer, mainly because of Police Services. We are a reactive agency and if something happens then we respond to it. So those kind of activities go down in the summer due to the student body population decrease. Of course in the fall, when students come back, activity picks up greatly, so now in the summer we increase pro-active patrol, look for things going on and also are visible to deter anything."