RE: “Volunteers say CUSA’s foot patrol service is underused,” March 29-April 4
Foot Patrol strives to create a campus environment where our services are no longer regularly needed. If this ever occurred, it would mean all members of the Carleton community were comfortable walking home alone both on and off campus. Unfortunately, this has not, and likely will never happen. When comparing the total number of safe-walks completed up to April 2 of this academic year to the total number completed for the last academic year, Foot Patrol’s safe-walk usage has increased by 18 per cent, according to Foot Patrol safe-walk logs.
Individuals that use our services are often marginalized, persevering through their own situations, and needing some support. Foot Patrol operates as one part of a complex safety net available to all members of the Carleton community. Removing or limiting our part of this support system would be both problematic and dangerous, as people needing our services would have nowhere to turn. A safe-walk is more than just the person’s physical safety, it is also about their mental well-being from start to finish. This is the fundamental reason that, like other support services, Foot Patrol cannot reduce or eliminate our role on campus even if the claim of a lull in our safe-walk usage was accurate. Our continued operation ensures that students in need can use us when they need us, no questions asked.
Therefore, Foot Patrol is committed to expanding our services. Starting in the Winter 2018 semester, we’ve increased our hours of operation to 2 a.m., on weekdays, and we’ve also very recently began operating on holidays that occur on the days we would normally be operating. Additionally, we are currently looking to extend our operating hours to the weekend within the next two academic years.
Furthermore, ensuring the anonymity of the people using our service is essential. Volunteer regulations prohibiting media contact are in place to protect the anonymity of anyone using our service centre. Safe-walk descriptions or any other incident details, risk identifying the individuals involved and compromising their anonymity.
We also understand that many students may not find themselves in a position to need to use our services during our regular shift hours. Nonetheless, we are determined to benefit their experience at Carleton.
As a result, we’ve had a Guardian Program presence at three times as many events this year, compared to last year. We recognize that most of us have had a few too many drinks at some point in our lives, and our Guardian teams are committed to ensuring that you make it home safely from a fun night out. Also, all Guardian teams have Standard First Aid/CPR/AED training, and are therefore able to assist in emergency first response situations when needed.
Since the 2017 fall term, Foot Patrol has also pioneered comprehensive semester safety audits, offering a student perspective to health and safety at Carleton. During our safety audits, a large group of volunteers patrol the interior and exterior of every building on campus over a three-day period, identifying any health and safety hazards.
The list of concerns is then compiled into a comprehensive report, distributed to maintenance, the Department of University Safety, and Carleton’s Joint Health and Safety committee, who then ensure that each matter is addressed.
Foot Patrol is fundamentally a safe-walk service, and recognizes the importance of providing and expanding those services for the Carleton community.
Our additional services ensure that no one who is fully informed of the extent of our operations can claim we don’t provide a tangible benefit the student body at Carleton University.
