Police make plans to improve safety on campus

PVAMU's Department of Public Safety continue to find methods to improve the quality of safety on campus.

"We are going to continue the measures that we're doing for crime prevention, patrolling our campus and checking suspicious people," said Investigator Darryl Hunt.

The department has been working on a campus crime watch program asking students to provide information and be able to report what's going on.

A tip line is available for those wanting to report any suspicious activity. The phone number is 936-261-2222. Callers may remain anonymous.

A campus crime stopper program has been a work in progress for four years.

Hunt hopes that with his program he can have an incentive for students to report crime such as rewarding them with Panther Bucks.

Hunt said that criticism comes to the department about what they are not doing instead of students trying to assist in helping to preventive occurrences from happening. He urged students to report when they see something.

"You hear all of these rumors but none of the rumors come over to the police department because no one wants to be labeled a snitch," Hunt said.

In order to alleviate some of the incidents on campus, Hunt urges students to interact with the officers and not to put themselves in compromising situations.

University police will now also assist students with vehicle problems if they have officers available at the time of the call.

"A lot of times people expect us to do everything. We're police officers. We're first here to serve and protect," Hunt said.

Hunt stressed that the university police were working to make Prairie View A&M University a safer environment.

"Students need to realize that we're a total different police department that you've probably heard about from the past. This is a totally different, no tolerance police department," Hunt said.