When I was a college student in midtown St. Louis, we had a spate of property and violent crime on the streets around the campus that then spilled onto the campus itself around dorms and classroom buildings. The initial response was increased squad car and foot patrol by sworn, armed officers of the St. Louis and University police departments, then 24-hour University police in the lobbies of each dorm, and finally uniformed, unarmed campus security with non-lethal weapons and radios in pairs to escort coeds after dark.
This reaction helped somewhat, but crime persisted. The final strategy that helped the most was “Whistle Stop,” a program in which every student, faculty, staff and contractor was issued a very loud metal referee whistle and told to blow their whistle whenever they felt threats, and instructions to call 911 or the University Police Emergency Line whenever they heard that loud piercing whistle sound.
Granted, there were a lot of false alarms but also there was a precipitous drop in crime, especially violent crime.
Fast forward 50 years and we don’t need whistles to warn of criminal threat or to deter violent crime by calling the police. Instead it is to warn people at risk to run and hide from ICE and Border Patrol POLICE (they must be POLICE since their bulletproof vests say “P O L I C E.”
What a difference 50 years makes.
Frank Vozak
Oak Park
