Liberty University enhances campus safety with emergency blue lights

Liberty University’s Office of Security & Public Safety activated 13 emergency blue light call boxes across campus this past weekend as the latest in a series of enhancements made toward the goal of providing safety and security measures that are best in class among university campuses in the United States.

“The safety of our students and our entire campus community is our utmost priority,” said Liberty Interim President Jerry Prevo. “We take this responsibility seriously, and we want to do everything we can to promote a safe environment. The blue lights are a great step forward.”

In addition to authorizing this investment into campus safety and security, Prevo also committed to greatly expanding the university’s security camera system and upgrading its emergency operations and dispatch centers.

Vice President of Security & Public Safety Ron Sloan said the university is about a third of the way into the three-year, $9 million project to upgrade campus security. The project gained full support from the university Board of Trustees.

“At Liberty University, we are dedicated to exceeding the standard that all college and universities must meet, and that means focusing on the prevention of incidents before they happen,” Sloan said. “If we mitigate one incident, the devices have proven their value. Our new systems are state-of-the-art, with the highest technical abilities and analytics available today. We are grateful that the interim president was able to deliver on what he said he would.”

Sloan said the new blue lights have security options that can only be found at a few other institutions of higher education across the country.

The blue lights remain lit at all times. When a button on the pole is pressed, the lights go into a strobe mode, and high-resolution cameras with a state of the art “auto-trigger” system activate a special camera that provides a live stream video to the new Liberty University Emergency Communications Dispatch Center. An emergency communications dispatcher can immediately send a Liberty University police officer (and other emergency personnel as needed) to the location. Through the call box, the dispatcher can two-way communicate with the individual in distress and visually monitor them in real time until help arrives.

The light locations were selected after a security and threat assessment of Liberty’s campus. The locations are as follows:

• East Campus Satellite South
• East Campus Satellite Bus Stop
• East Campus Lacrosse Parking

• East Campus Indoor Track Parking

• East Campus Natatorium Parking

• East Campus Askew Lot

• Dorm 31 Area Parking

• Dorm 33 Area Parking

• Jerry Falwell Library Green Space

• 460 Tunnel Garage Side

• 460 Tunnel Vines Center Side

• Wards Tunnel – Vines Center Side

• Wards Tunnel – Wards Road Side