After reviewing the results of the latest survey, conducted every three years to gauge our community’s perception of safety at West Virginia University, the WVU Police Department is sharing its key findings and specific actions it plans to take to continue to improve the safety of our students, faculty, staff and visitors.
1,080 individuals participated in the survey (503 students, 339 staff, 107 faculty, 49 parents and 82 community members).
View the full visualization report.Key findings include:
- Concerns about safety in downtown Morgantown and other areas off-campus.
- Further education concerning emergency procedures was indicated as a top priority.
- Additional education is needed regarding the LiveSafe app. While more respondents indicated using the LiveSafe app more than accessing the blue lights, more than half of respondents have not downloaded LiveSafe.
- Most respondents were satisfied with the overall conduct of UPD officers, confidence in officers’ abilities and comfort with their approachability. However, UPD does recognize room for improvement in more frequently engaging with members of our University community.
“With the helpful feedback our campus community has provided, we have already started to discuss ways we can improve,” Chief Sherry St. Clair notes. “Our department is always working to provide the best services to our students, faculty and staff, and we are committed to utilizing these survey results to continue creating a safe campus.”
In response to the survey results, UPD is discussing the following specific actions:
- UPD will work to provide more frequent communications on safety tips and updates.
- To address the interest in more training opportunities, UPD has begun working to coordinate additional training sessions for faculty and staff, with specific sessions on de-escalation and how to respond to an active shooter. The UPD team is also developing a plan to provide additional training opportunities for our entire campus community for the upcoming fall semester. Additionally, UPD will be creating an online module for faculty, staff and students that will focus on a variety of safety issues and will be made available later this year.
- To engage more in informal settings, UPD will determine ways to have an increased presence in various areas of campus, like dining halls, where we can get to know the campus community more.
- UPD is evaluating the possibility of placing additional cameras on campus in critical, high-traffic areas.
- UPD hopes to hold additional engagement events through the remainder of the spring semester and into the fall semester.
- Although new door-locking systems are already planned for Downtown areas, WVU will explore external funding options for similar systems on other areas of campus. UPD will work with building supervisors to control building access by communicating and enforcing building hours and access prior to the start of the fall semester.
- UPD will be increasing visibility at PRT stations and pedestrian crossings with a focus on increasing enforcement at pedestrian-heavy intersections.
- UPD will work with the Morgantown Partnership Campus Safety Committee and the City of Morgantown to discuss ideas to increase safety measures in the downtown Morgantown area.
- UPD will continue to work with other University groups to evaluate how and when community notifications are provided to the WVU community. It is important to note that UPD only has jurisdiction over the WVU campus. Other police agencies in the area have jurisdiction over the areas where many incidents occur. When UPD is not a lead agency on an investigation or incident, the department must defer to the lead agency on when and how information is released.
As a reminder, students, faculty and staff are encouraged to download the LiveSafe app for real-time, two-way communication with UPD. LiveSafe users can use the app to report incidents, find safety information and request a safety walk, where UPD can walk with people to their destination.
We also encourage you to make sure you are registered to receive notifications via the WVU Alert system, which is a three-tiered notification system that utilizes text, email, social media and other communications channels to notify our University community about emergencies and incidents on or near campus.
To learn more about UPD, explore our website. For questions, contact us at police@mail.wvu.edu or 304-293-2677.