But in his four years at Columbia, he couldn't remember an incident when police intervened as a result of a security phone call, nor did he know of any arrests. He estimated that the telephones are used for just five to 10 actual emergencies each year. In fact, only one security administrator that Student. 63 Northwestern University said he knew of an incident where campus police stopped a crime in progress because a student used the security telephone. They're normally not being attacked.
People sometimes call in if they see someone else's problem.
The blue light phones are only part of a larger campus security program that involves other crime-prevention techniques, such as roaming officers and shuttle services. I don't think it's fair to say that students think that because they have the phones everything's going to be safe. Students are smarter than that. But while picking up a blue light phone may not be of much help to a student being robbed at gunpoint, most say the telephones serve as a more passive deterrent to potential criminals, who know that their crime will be immediately reported. Lee Drutman is a student at Brown University .