Campus Safety Event Gives Students Advice

UW-Milwaukee’s Campus Safety Week turned Spaights Plaza into a learning environment for the UWM community to understand how to handle dangerous situations on campus.

Behind a table lined with a row of safety brochures and complimentary pieces of candy was a fire extinguisher demonstration. Several extinguishers were available for volunteers to operate and put out a small flame. UWM freshman Fidelis Okhuofu used a fire extinguisher for his first time at Safety Week.

“It felt fun putting out the fire,” said Okhuofu. “Now I see how you use the extinguisher so if I see a fire in my house, I know how to take it out professionally and properly.”

Fire is a real concern on campus. The reported fire property damage across five campus halls and residences totaled $110,840 between 2015 and 2017, according to UWM’s 2018 Annual Security & Fire Safety Report. Of the 13 reported fire incidents in the report, 11 were due to cooking accidents.

“Thirty percent of the students have never worked in a kitchen before they get into college,” said Laboratory Safety Coordinator Jennifer Herriges. “They never had to cook their own meals so a lot of the fires that start in the dorms come from cooking.”

Other physical training stations included CPR training, a defibrillator exercise, AED demonstrations and active shooter training. A free self-defense course was also available for people to try. The A.K.A. (Awareness, Knowledge, Action) course taught volunteers striking and defending techniques. The demonstration also included lessons to help people judge when to use self-defense. One UW-Milwaukee police officer held a padded punching pad as he walked throughout the plaza and offered campus goers a chance to throw some punches.

Some stations provided information and sign-up opportunities for safety services like the Rave Guardian app, which includes a virtual SAFEWALK feature. SAFEWALK allows users to choose a friend who can track their GPS location. A chosen contact can check in on their friend or relative if the user fails to deactivate the app after before the time it would take to arrive at their destination. The Guardian app also offers personal safety escorts who are available from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. The escorts are trained to be aware of their surroundings and maintain direct communication with campus police through a two-way radio.

The app was used by nearly 1,000 people last spring, according to UWM Police Chief Joseph LeMire. The slow rollout was intended to give dispatchers the opportunity to focus on a smaller install base. Last week, two users received help when they accessed the app’s text messaging feature.

“We want this week to be the real kickoff that bounced the numbers up to get more people using it,” said LeMire. “Some students, and people in general, just don’t want to call the police department, but they’ll text them if they see something suspicious.”

UWM Safety Week began just five days after a S.A.F.E. Alert notified campus community members of an armed robbery attempt. The alert read:

“On Wednesday, September 18^th, 2019 at approximately 12:05 a.m., at 3245 N. Oakland Ave a UWM Student was approached by the suspect. The suspect pointed a shotgun at the student and demanded their property. The suspect obtained the victim’s cell phone and fled as a passenger in a white 4 door sedan. The vehicle was last seen traveling southbound on N. Bartlett Ave.”

Many students receive S.A.F.E. Alerts through email or text message notifications. Fidelis Okhuofu read the alert when it was sent to students on Wednesday.

“The safety alert tells me that something is going on in a specific area, and I have to watch out for it and be careful so I know I’m not gong to get shot or robbed,” said Okhuofu. “It keeps me safe because I know the police are basically watching and listening so they’re doing their job right.”

Fourteen reported robberies and 40 burglaries occurred near the main Kenwood campus between 2015 and 2017, according to the 2018 Annual Security & Fire Safety Report.

“Having those alerts shows that there’s always an underlying danger and risk when you’re walking around campus as well as in Milwaukee in general,” said Zach Kosidowski, a 19-year-old UWM freshman. “Life has a funny way of throwing curveballs when you least expect it.”