Foot Patrol’s new Guardian Program is a solid attempt at bettering student safety on campus, but it’s fundamentally flawed.
The new program aims to see specially trained Foot Patrol officers provide a safety presence for student groups at events.
The program can provide “crowd control, accessibility support, organizing safe-walks at the end of the event, and can present a presentation on safety if desired.”
Three of those sound fine, but crowd control doesn’t sit well.
If Guardians go to an event, then there must be some possibility for safety issues. If that’s the case, and students are in charge of crowd control, things could easily go wrong.
Students policing other students outside of campus safety could create unnecessary conflicts.
On the other side, perhaps the program will have no real teeth. If a conflict does arise, then Guardians may not have the authority to do anything about it.
If there’s a safety issue on campus, students should call on and rely on campus safety. That’s their job and their mandate, not Foot Patrol’s. Campus safety should be at every event that requires a safety presence, especially ones that require crowd control.
Instead, the student-funded group should move away from the Guardian Program and expand its original mandate.
Foot Patrol should be walking people home after events, making safety presentations, and providing accessibility support—not policing them.
