U. to spend $300K upgrading blue light phones

More than 60 new phones will be in positionMore than 60 new phones will be in positionbetween 40th and 43rd streets by November 1 and Ben Hammer The University plans to spend $300,000 on the purchase of 66 new blue light phones in an effort to upgrade security near campus, according to Managing Director of Public Safety Thomas Seamon. He said the 66 solar-powered, cellular phones, designed by General Telephone and Electric, will be installed beginning November 1. Seamon said the new phones are better than the current ones because the cellular network will indicate to University Police which phones are not working. Cellular technology will save the University money since it eliminates the need for costly phone and electrical connections. Lt. Robert Lowell, chief of Temple University's Detective Division, said Temple's main campus has used a similar cellular system with positive results. Temple police have not encountered any situations where students tried to use the phones and discovered they were broken. Roughly half of Penn's 66 new phones will be positioned between 40th and 43rd streets and Chestnut and Baltimore streets, with one phone planned for each corner in the area, according to Seamon. Seamon said Public Safety will also repair existing phones. In addition, the installation of new 36 phones will continue as planned before the recent crime wave. An independent Daily Pennsylvanian inspection of 70 randomly selected blue light phones revealed that the current phones are badly in need of repair. The inspection of phones between 32nd and 40th streets along Spruce, Locust and Walnut streets showed visible damage to more than 20 percent of the phones. Four phones had broken telephone cords and exposed wiring, while eight others lacked working blue lights -- making them nearly impossible to see at night. Although there is a blue light box between Modern Language College House and Van Pelt College House, the phone was missing altogether. And the phone box at 38th Street and University Avenue was jammed shut. Other phones, like the one in front of Hayden Hall, are located behind shrubbery, blocking vision and hindering access. Chief of Police Operations Maureen Rush said last week that the current wiring system is old and requires regular time-consuming and expensive maintenance. The problem of broken phones came to the forefront last week when a mugging victim tried to contact police, but found that the blue light phone outside of Smokey Joe's Tavern on 40th Street near Locust Street was not in working order. Public Safety usually fixes broken emergency phones on the same day a problem is reported, Seamon said, adding that police checked and found nothing wrong with the emergency phones outside of Smokey Joe's. Seamon explained that University Police check each of the approximately 260 blue light phones at least once every six months. He noted that the last check found that only five of the 260 phones were not working. At a public meeting on safety last Thursday night, Seamon said police have received more than 100 calls from the emergency phones since the beginning of September, indicating that the phones are operating successfully. But despite Public Safety's focus on the blue light phone upgrades, College sophomore and Undergraduate Assembly Safety Committee Chairperson Courtney Fine said that in the short run, students would rather see more police officers on the street than more blue light phones. Fine added that Public Safety's long-term plans include combining video cameras with the phones to combat muggings, a move that she said would make them more effective and reassuring to students.

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