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In her review of the Department of Public Safety, former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch recommended that the department no longer be in charge of operating shuttle escort services.

Lynch and her team said they heard a number of complaints from students regarding the service, and this dissatisfaction contributes to their negative view of DPS. The service is a “source of a notable number of the negative interactions between students and DPS,” according to the report.

“It is not clear that operating the safety escort service requires law enforcement expertise, and some officers indicated to us that they would happily cede the responsibility to others,” the report said.

A DPS spokesperson did not immediately comment on what the department plans to do with the service, and said that more information regarding the shuttle service will be available soon.

Lynch released her report, a 97-pages long product of a year-long investigation, in February. The report observed how DPS interacts with members of the Syracuse University community outlined 23 recommendations for the department.

Several SU students who have used the escort program said they like having a safer alternative to Centro buses on campus and would prefer to keep the option, even if DPS no longer runs it.

DPS Shuttle Escort Service operates daily from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. to provide safety to students, faculty and staff traveling alone at night. Groups of three or more are considered a “safe walking group,” according to DPS’ website and are usually referred to other transportation services.

The escort program is for safety, not convenience, and students should familiarize themselves with the Centro bus schedules, according to the DPS website.

Dominick Allen, a sophomore majoring in psychology, works at Sadler Dining Hall every Monday and usually finishes his shift at 10 p.m. He heard about the shuttle service through a friend and has begun regularly using it to get back to his apartment on South Campus.

Allen said he feels safer taking the DPS shuttle, which picks him up outside of Sadler and brings him to the corner by his apartment, instead of walking to the Centro bus stop and waiting alone for the next bus.

Karen Villacis, a freshman architecture major, said she has used the service a few times when she stayed late at the studio in Slocum Hall or was doing work in the library.

“I don’t really have to worry about how I’m gonna get home,” Villacis said.

Students said they find the service easy to use. They call, give their student ID number and the shuttle picks them up and takes them to where they need to be. The phone operators never ask questions about why they were calling, which students said they like as well.

“It’s pretty straight-forward,” Villacis said. “We just call them and they come pick us up.”

Allen said he finds the service efficient, and that the longest he’s had to wait is 20 minutes. Since he’s always used the service on a Monday night, he finds he often has the same driver.

“The best part is the efficiency. The time efficiency is really good. I don’t have to wait that long,” Allen said.

One way that the service could improve is if it were as widely available as the Centro buses, Allen said. Villacis said having the operator on the phone provide a clear estimate of how long the shuttle will take to arrive would be helpful.

Shannon Grech, a freshman architecture student, said she only had an issue once with the shuttle service where it took longer to arrive then expected to pick her and some friends up from Marshall Street one night.

After 30 minutes of waiting, she and her friends wound up walking home, and when they called to cancel the ride, they said it would have been another 20 minutes.

“I don’t even mind that they were super busy or whatever the case was, but if they knew that we would have appreciated knowing that the wait would have been 50 minutes,” Grech said.

The friends each called for the shuttle service individually, Grech said. Although there were four of them, she said they still felt unsafe walking home by themselves to their individual dorms.

“I understand that in their mind they may have thought, ‘OK these four girls are together so they are not a priority.’ But four girls being out alone is just as dangerous as one,” Grech said. “If someone wanted to hurt us, they still would.”

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More stories on marijuana in New York:

• Syverud addresses Lynch report, new state COVID-19 guidelines for colleges
• Breaking down Loretta Lynch’s 97-page DPS report
• Loretta Lynch releases year-long DPS review
• Pain and progress: Black History Month in Syracuse

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Another issue Lynch identified in her report is that, according to DPS’s escort policy, officers are allowed to observe the surrounding area of the person requesting escort under “suspicious circumstances” or in “high-threat neighborhoods.”

But since the policy doesn’t define “suspicious circumstances” or “high threat neighborhoods,” this standard could lead to disproportionate policing of students of color, the report said.

In her report, Lynch also recommended that DPS move away from use of squad cars for escort requests and increase the use of its shuttle escort services.

“We realize that transition may take time and recommend that the current policy be modified to provide more objective guidance in the meantime,” the report said.

The students said they feel safer knowing that DPS officers run the shuttle service, but that they would still continue to use it even if DPS no longer operated it.

“I personally feel more safe because they are affiliated with the school,” Allen said. “By any chance if there was another service that could provide the same service as DPS and it’s efficient, I would possibly be interested.”

Published on March 29, 2021 at 9:36 pm

Contact Sarah: scalessa@syr.edu | @sarahalessan