New Safety Enhancements Coming to Duke
Features include a safety app and installation of Automated External Defibrillators
Beginning this month, Duke will start the rollout of several initiatives to enhance personal safety across campus.
Duke administrators have been working on several fronts, including offering a new smartphone app, installing life-saving Automated External Defibrillators,or AEDs,in buildings and adding fencing on the edge of Central Campus along Erwin Road. The moves stem from ongoing discussions among Duke’s emergency management team.
“We are constantly assessing and exploring strategies to make Duke safe for students, faculty, staff, patients and the thousands of visitors we host each year,” said Kyle Cavanaugh, vice president for administration and Duke’s emergency coordinator. “This new set of initiatives is part of the ongoing and evolving campus approach to providing the safest environment as possible.”
Here is what’s planned:
- Report Safety Concerns with New LiveSafe App
- Installing Live-Saving AED Devices
- New Fencing along Erwin Road on Central
Report Safety Concerns with New LiveSafe App
Within the app, which will be available at no charge for download in the coming weeks, students and employees can use a smartphone to report tips by text, photo or video about anything from vandalism and car accidents to suspicious activity and assault. If desired, tips can be submitted anonymously. The app also uses GPS technology and allows friends and family to virtually walk a user to his or her final destination. The app provides quick access to emergency calls to Duke Police or 9-1-1.
Duke Chief of Police John Dailey said the police department will seek feedback from Duke students and employees during implementation of the LiveSafe app, which is used by more than 100 universities and colleges across the country.
“We talk about safety being a shared responsibility,” Dailey said. “This app gives people one touch access to follow the safety mantra, ‘If you see something, say something.’”
The LiveSafe app will be available through Apple and Android app stores. For more information, visit the LiveSafe website.
Installing Life-Saving AED Devices
By the end of February, the first of 29 new automated external defibrillator (AED) devices will be installed in buildings throughout the university as a way to provide more options in live-threatening situations.
“AEDs aren’t always a solution, but they are part of a comprehensive response plan for cardiac arrest and arrhythmia,” Thomann said. “It’s an important part of our other mechanisms, which include hands-only CPR, Duke student EMS and Durham EMS.”
The devices will be placed in buildings with higher potential need due to foot traffic and events, and include dining halls, performance venues, libraries, Duke Athletics’ facilities and Duke Chapel. Future audits will be performed to determine other locations where AEDs may be installed, Thomann said, which will include assessment of new construction or renovation projects.
Training won’t be needed to use AEDs. When opened, the AEDs offer verbal and visual prompts, creating an easy user experience in the moment.
“You don’t have to be an expert to use them,” Thomann said.
New Fencing along Erwin Road on Central
On Feb. 22, Facilities Management crews will begin the process of adding about 2,500 feet of fence on the edge of Central Campus, along Erwin Road.
The work, which, weather permitting, will last until April 1, is meant to act as an aesthetic safety measure to limit foot traffic onto the residential area. The fencing will not wrap around any of buildings and will be installed on the northern portions of blocks between Oregon Street, Alexander Avenue, Anderson Street and Flowers Drive.
Two different styles of fence will be added and both will stand 6 feet tall.
Two blocks between Oregon and Anderson Street will have 1,450 feet of black “estate” fencing installed, which is made of metal rods with pointed tops and can be found along other entry points on Central Campus, such as the blocks on Anderson Street. Each estate fencing column will end with a brick pylon, also about 6 feet high.
The third stretch will be 1,015 feet of black chain link fencing set around the northern portion of the H Lot. See this map for details.
Installation of the fencing will take place from approximately 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and should have no impact on vehicle or pedestrian traffic traveling along the construction areas.