The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

COLLEGE of the Bahamas students are calling for greater investment to be made in campus security by hiring additional security officers and purchasing additional surveillance equipment.

Their calls come as the new semester has started with an increase in crime related reports on campus.

Last week, it was reported that two women students were assaulted near the college’s campus, with one of them being held up by a man with a screw driver and another being struck to the floor.

In a press statement yesterday, Alphonso Major, President of the college’s student union, said COBUS recently conducted a walk-about of COB’s campus and has submitted a list of recommendations to senior officials.

Calls to those officials by this newspaper yesterday were not returned.

Nonetheless, Mr Major said COBUS recommends that the college “invest in more trained and educated campus security officers to assist in the inner-criminality of the college.”

He said: “The College has terminated 15-20 officers over a tw0-year period, which has resulted in the hiring of a private security firm that adds to the issues due to their lackluster approach. It is our recommendation that the college officials must reconstruct this problematic anti-crime strategy, and invest their resources in hiring more officers and equip the current officers with all of the necessary equipment, knowledge and insured privileges to increase the safety on campus.”

The second recommendation, he said, is to increase the lighting and surveillance equipment around COB’s campus.

“Currently,” he said, “from on-site observation, there are 20 plus lights that are in need of a bulb or repair. This is an issue that COBUS has been battling with from the immediate Past Vice President of Operations and the issues were acknowledge but never addressed. Additionally, the college currently has few installed cameras throughout the campus, however COBUS is uncertain if they are operational. COBUS proposes that the College invest in a state of the art security surveillance system and an efficient control room to monitor the 24-hour operations of all premises and on call assistance from the Royal Bahamas Police Force to patrol the outer boundaries of the College.”

COBUS is also recommending that a “stop and inquiry” policy be implemented. Under the policy, security officers will be mandated to assess the identification cards of persons requesting access to the campus.

For their part, outsiders would be given a visitor’s pass so officers could “track their whereabouts.”

COBUS is also recommending that a system be created for students who would volunteer to be a part of nightly patrols.

The creation of an on-campus safety campaign and a crisis safety hotline are two additional recommendations outlined by COBUS.