March 28, 2024

Wittenberg’s campus, albeit small, is not immune to safety issues and concerns. The Police and Security department at Witt is prepared for any situation, and want campus to be aware of multiple services for students that they may not be aware of.
Police Chief Donald Lucas said that while things like escort, lost and found, and vehicle registration are commonly known services, there are others that are underutilized due to a lack of knowledge about them.
One such example is the adopt-a-cop program, which uses officers to serve as an organization’s designated officer for programs and interactions. Ben Moore-Coll, a senior at Wittenberg, heard of this because his fraternity Lambda Chi Alpha, uses this program for their various events.
“It’s really great to know who will show up in any event of needing their assistance,” said Moore-Coll. “It’s nice to be able to talk to the same person and have a personal relationship with the people that are helping us.”
Other services include Student Ride-A-Long programs, Mail-Gate, Vehicle Assist, and Transports, which are all immediate-response type programs. The student ride-a-long lets students interact and learn what exactly the job as an officer entails during a daily patrol. Mail-Gate is an anonymous crime reporting program that is readily available to anyone at Wittenberg. Vehicle assist is used when a student has locked themselves out of their car, which is frequent, or any other car related troubles.
Transport is the service most commonly used service, which is for injured students who need to travel across campus. A health center clearance is how this service can be provided for students.
While there are many immediate response programs provided by the police and security department, which includes emergency health response, they also offer various other programs which help educate students.
Self defense classes are offered through this department, which many residence halls take advantage of as a program at least once a semester (according to who?). This is a good way to expose students to the fact that these classes are available at any given time (this sentence is unclear and is also an opinion).
“Self defense classes for students can be organized by the police office with certified instructors in the area,” said Lucas.
There are various educational services that are offered; one is drunk driver goggles, which show the effects of alcohol at various intoxication levels. They are often used in presentations by officers in the residence halls. The other presentation is for crime prevention, which informs students of various safety procedures on campus, as well as other safety topics.
Other services include bike registrations, building access, which allows certain students with faculty approval to be let in to buildings after hours; blue light phones, which are found around campus; and finally whistles which are available to anyone on campus and can be picked up in the office.
All of these services and their descriptions can be found on the Wittenberg Police and Security page on the Wittenberg website, as well as all of their emergency response information.

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