New vehicles help Penn Police fight crime on campus (with video)

There is a new vehicle to fight crime on Locust Walk.

This summer, the Division of Public Safety purchased a new T3 Series three-wheeled electric vehicle for patrol on Locust Walk. Each vehicle costs approximately $12,000 and can go up to 25 miles per hour, according to DPS spokeswoman Stef Cella.

While the T3 will not be replacing traditional patrol bicycles any time soon, its popularity among students, parents and security staff, signals the beginning of “the end of the life cycle” for campus security carts, according to Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush.

In comparison to the carts, the T3 offers better speed control, more agility, a better vantage point and much greater visibility on Locust Walk. The zero-degree turning radius allows the T3 to rotate on the spot instead of doing a three-point turn, according to Rick SanFilippo, director of security and technical services for DPS.

Students said they are impressed with the T3s. “The higher platform creates a sense of authority for Penn security,” Engineering sophomore Matt Rybak said.

Rush added that the amount of interest generated by the T3 vehicle serves as a platform for informing the public about Penn’s many safety initiatives.

“When a student approaches us about the T3, it gives us an opportunity to ask ‘Do you know about the Penn Walk program?’ and so on,” Rush said.

“It has become a great community relations tool,” she added.

DPS originally looked into the T3 as an option for Penn Park and decided to test-drive the vehicle during move-in days, Rush said. The response has been overwhelmingly positive.

Riding the T3 is considered a privilege among Penn security staff, and both parents and students showed tremendous interest in the vehicle during New Student Orientation.

“We had to fight off the parents during move-in days,” Rush joked.

SanFilippo adds that the T3 vehicle is an example of the DPS’s commitment to environmental sustainability.

The T3 was bought under the Green Fund, an initiative of Penn’s Green Campus Partnership funded by Facilities and Real Estate Services and the Office of the Provost. The fund supports ideas and projects from the Penn community which benefit Penn’s environmental impact.

According to SanFilippo, the T3 vehicle will feature zero gas emission and run on clean electric energy.

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