Formerly+E

REPORT:

Formerly E Consulting 250 Market Street Wilmington, DE 19711 302-505-4390

May 11, 2009

Student Council Association University of Delaware 413 South College Road Newark, DE 19711

Dear University of Delaware Student Council Association,

Thank you for using Formerly E Consulting to evaluate the University of Delaware’s Emergency Blue Light System and it’s its effectiveness. Enclosed is the final report from Formerly E Consulting covering our findings and a solution to your proposed problem.

The final report includes the procedure we followed to ensure the effectiveness of the Emergency Blue Light system. In addition, this report includes an analysis of our findings, as well as a detailed conclusion and Formerly E Consulting' final recommendation.

We enjoyed the opportunity of working with you. If you have any further questions or concerns about our findings and recommendation, feel free to contact us.

Sincerely,

Daniel Mark Vice President Formerly E Consulting

Enclosure : Final Report


 * Title Page** - **Note: MS WORD**

Formally E Consulting

 * Table of Contents** - **Note: MS WORD **


 * Executive Summary**

For the last month Formally E Consulting has been researching for the University of Delaware Student Council, whether or not the current Emergency Blue Light Phone System is in need of change.

Our research included talking to current Public Safety Officers, City of Newark consultants and the local student body on the subject. After factoring in all the issues of the problem, for example the unique campus location, we found that the current Emergency Blue Light Phone System was in fact the best that it could possibly be (under current restrictions). Over 90% of our surveyed students agreed that the current Emergency Blue Light Phone System did not need to be changed in any way.

Overall, the Emergency Blue Light Phone System is a good crime deterrent and (unless current City/University zoning changes) is as good as the system could be built.


 * Introduction**

The goal of Formally E's research is to determine whether the current Emergency Blue Light Telephone System is properly distributed throughout the University of Delaware's college campus.

We began by talking to the officers at the Public Safety office and locating all the Blue Light Telephones on campus. We asked the officers for any data they had about the phones but unfortunately they were unable to help. We did locate a map containing all the locations of the Blue Lights (Appendix A).

We did discover that the Blue Light Telephones are University of Delaware property and were not allowed on City of Newark or State of Delaware property. Main Street is owned by the City of Newark so the Blue Light Telephone systems are not allowed.

Introduction: Kyle: Check proposal: discuss problem, and use other information to set the tone...speak on RFP by student council....officers increased protection with being able to carry guns...


 * Procedure

Our first step was to go to the source, the University of Delaware Public Safety office. After talking to Officer Jones, we found that public safety does not keep track of specific data such as number of calls from the blue light units. We asked why there are no blue light units on popular streets such as East Main Street, Officer Jones informed us that the University is not allowed to place blue light units on non-university property. This affects where the blue light units can be placed. So high crimes areas that are frequented by students in their travels that are not on direct university property can not have blue light units installed to help increase comfort and safety.

After talking to University of Delaware Public Safety we went to talk to the City of Newark to confirm some facts. After talking to a Mrs. Shirley Ferrell, about the blue light units, we were told that it is correct that the University of Delaware can not place blue light units on non-university property. She also explained how on many calls to public safety asking for assistants are accompanied by city and occasionally state troopers.

We compared the University of Delaware's blue light emergency phones to other schools. We found two schools that use similar systems, University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University. Both schools have emergency phone units spread throughout their campuses. Both of the other campuses do not share the unique layout of the University of Delaware. The University of Delaware has a town throughout the campus but the other schools are completely isolated and have towns around but not within the campus. Having the town not inside the university's campus give the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University an advantage. If they find a high crime area they have the ease of just adding a new emergency light unit in that location, an advantage the University of Delaware does not have. ** Attached are the maps for both the Johns Hopkins University and University of Maryland's campus with their emergency telephone units shown (Appendix B and Appendix C).

We issued a survey to the student body asking a few simple questions:

Q1: Do you feel that there are enough blue lights on campus? Q2: Have you ever used the emergency blue light system? Q3: Are there enough blue light on the paths you walk home on? (Late night parties, bar etc.) Q4: Do you feel safe with the blue light system on campus?

This is a bar graph of the calculated results:



This chart shows the breakdown of responses from each classification surveyed:


 * **Questions:** || **Freshmen** || **Sophomores** || **Juniors** || **Seniors** ||
 * Q: 1 || 75%-**Yes**/ 25% **No** || 80%- **Yes**/ 20%- **No** || 95%- **Yes**/ 5%- **No** || 90%- **Yes**/ 10%- **No** ||
 * Q: 2 || 10%- **Yes**/ 90% **No** || 8%- **Yes**/ 92%- **No** || 15%- **Yes**/ 85%- **No** || 6%- **Yes**/ 94%- **No** ||
 * Q: 3 || 88%- **Yes**/ 12% **No** || 85%- **Yes**/ 15%- **No** || 89%- **Yes**/ 11%- **No** || 82%- **Yes**/ 18%- **No** ||
 * Q: 4 || 90%- **Yes**/ 10% **No** || 92%- **Yes**/ 8%- **No** || 84%- **Yes**/ 16%- **No** || 75%- **Yes**/ 25%- **No** ||

We next examined the distribution of lights throughout the university campus. Keeping in mind that the blue lights are only allowed to be placed on university property, we looked for any holes in the coverage of the lights. We looked at the most commonly used paths at night to see if there was an even and equally distributed blue light units. 
 * Results/****Analysis**

After speaking with officers Jones we were only able to gather that blue lights were unable to be placed on off-campus housing although consider campus housing to students. Officer Jones informed us that they were unable to implement blue lights due to that fact the city of Newark does not allow for these emergency blue lights to be on city property. Following our interview with oficer Jones we were able to contact Mrs. Shirley Ferrell who works for the city of Newark. She was able to confirm the statement made by officer Jones about the implementation of emergency blue lights on city property.

We then looked to compare the University of Delaware with universities with similar blue light systems. We were able to find that University of Maryland and John Hopkins University both had similar systems on their campuses. From our analysis of the campuses we found that University of Delaware is at a disadvantage because it is a campus located within the city of Newark. Because the city of Newark does not allow for blue lights to be implemented on city property, the university cannot protect students who live on off campus housing with blue lights. The two other universities compared have isolated campuses where all student housing is located on campus.Unlike the University of Delaware these universities had towns that were outside of campus with low numbers of students living in these neighborhoods.

Understanding this we have concluded that because of this difference it is easier for the universities compared to implement more emergency blue lights in areas where they may experience higher crime with no problems. From our surveys we were able to see that most students find the emergency blue light system effectively working at the University of Delaware. Also, our surveys showed that most students feel safe on campus with a small percentage that do not. After looking over the map and reviewing our data we have come to conclude that the Blue Light Telephone System is (under current constrictions) currently at the best distribution at the University of Delaware.


 * Conclusion/Recommendations**

In looking at all of the information gathered, we have come to the conclusion that the current system is the best possible under its coverage area. However, through our research, we have found that much of the crime in the area is happening just outside of the perimeter. As former students we know from first hand experience that there is also a large number of students who reside in residences off campus. Understanding this we assesed locations that are not technically on-campus residencies, but are still known as paths students travel on during the day and night. In identifying these areas we marked hotspots where no blue lights were present.The common areas were seen on Main and North campuses. We do understand that the current city laws prevent the University from placing blue light phones on city property, but hopefully through some lobbying and litigation, we can come to a compromise. Therefore it is our recommendation that 12 additional emergency phones be placed in areas outlined on the attached map. If you would refer to the attached map, we recommend these phones be placed in the following locations:


 * 1) West Main St. between Elkton and Hillside
 * 2) Intersection of Cleveland and New London
 * 3) Intersection of N. Chapel and Wilbur
 * 4) Intersection of Cleveland and Wilbur
 * 5) Intersection of Cleveland and N. Chapel
 * 6) Intersection of Choate and New London
 * 7) Intersection of E. Main and Center
 * 8) Intersection of Haines and E. Delaware
 * 9) Intersection of Haines and Lovett
 * 10) Intersection of S. Chapel and Lovett
 * 11) Intersection of Ray and New London
 * 12) Intersection of E. Park and Manuel

If the University could implement these new locations, we expect a decrease of 15% of overall crime. Just the presence of these new phones would deter crimes such as assault, robbery and battery. The phones would serve as a beacon to show how seriously the University views the safety of their students.


 * Works Cited **
 * 1) "City of Newark." Personal interview. 9 May 2009.
 * 2) "Emergency Phone Map." Map. Emerphone. Johns Hopkins University. 8 May 2009 .
 * 3) Johns Hopkins University Campus Safety and Security. Johns Hopkins University. .
 * 4) Jones, Sarah. "Public Safety." Personal interview. 5 May 2009.
 * 5) "PERT Emergency Phones." Map. PERT Emergency Phones. University of Maryland. 8 May 2009 .
 * 6) Public Safety Crime Statistics. University of Delaware. .
 * 7) UD Public Safety. University of Delaware. .
 * 8) "Walkabout Map." Map. WalkaboutMap. University of Delaware. 7 May 2009 .


 * Appendices**

A) Walkabout Map containing the locations of the Blue Light Telephones. B) Johns Hopkins University Campus Map with Emergency Phone System C) University of Maryland Campus Map with Emergency Phone System

PROPOSAL:

Formerly E Consulting 250 Market Street Wilmington, DE 19711 302-505-4390

April 20, 2009

Student Council Association University of Delaware 413 South College Road Newark, DE 19711

Dear University of Delaware Student Council Association,

Thank you for inquiring about the University of Delaware’s Emergency Blue Light System and its effectiveness. Enclosed is a proposal from Formely E Consulting covering our main objectives in helping to assist your situation.

The proposal describes the procedure we will follow to ensure if the Emergency Blue Light system is one hundred percent effective. In addition, this proposal includes a schedule of our status and a budget which Formerly E Consulting will follow closely.

Feel free to contact us with any questions, or concerns. We look forward to working with you.

Sincerely,

Daniel Mark Vice President Formerly E Consulting


 * Enclosure**: Proposal

Our goals are to assess the emergency blue light system on campus, and decide whether the lights are in the best location for keeping students safe.
 * Introduction:**

The student council association at UD issued an RFP in reviewing the security on campus for students. The blue light system is a very popular system; however it has come to the attention of the student council that students feel more lights should be implemented.
 * Background:**

In our review of the blue light system we will assess whether there are enough lights throughout campus. We will also look to see if these lights are situated in high traffic paths that students regularly use day or night. Along with these assessments we will determine whether new lights should be implemented and added to areas that we see unsafe or needing of the blue light system. These objectives will be met by all group members. We will work with public safety to obtain blue prints of the university, and the blue light system. We will also inquire about past cases where the blue lights were used, as well as cases where blue light wasn’t used. We will also take on the responsibility of walking the different parts of campus through the night when students use the paths on campus. This information and knowledge will help in our review of the system.
 * Objectives:**

In order complete our research our company will: **
 * Procedure**/**Research:
 * Go to public safety and assess the structure and any current strategies they are implementing
 * Go to City of Newark Municipal building
 * Look at the safest schools in the nation and communicate with their public safety officials to analyze the differences. (Johns Hopkins and Northeastern according to Readers Digest)
 * Distribute surveys consisting of safety questions
 * Questions referring to their feeling of security on campus.
 * These surveys will be given to a random sample of students living on campus, as well as handed out to students in hotspots such as Trabant and Perkins Student Center
 * Expecting at least 100 responses
 * Examine the current locations and spread of the emergency portals

We charge $500 per day. We have estimated that we will spend approximately 13 days to complete the research. Therefore, the cost will sum to $6500 (implementation of result not included).
 * Budget:**

Formerly E Consulting was created to ensure safety for all students, teachers and patrons of accredited universities across America. For ten years, FEC has teamed with both local law enforcement and university police to find solutions to seemingly impossible debacles. A list of our recent accomplishments can be seen on our website, www.FEC.gov, along with our mission statement and our personnel information. Our consultants are hand-picked based on many attributes including determination, dedication and reputation.
 * Record of Service:**