May 06, 2015
How safe is Temple University?
Safer than the University of Pennsylvania, according to Temple's student-run newspaper after extensive research.
Temple University journalism students spent the spring semester tackling a topic - campus safety - that’s been a major concern for the North Philadelphia-based university since its earliest days as an educational institution.
After a months-long investigation that included interviews with more than a dozen students, officers and community leaders, as well as a comparison of crime statistics to those of surrounding universities, The Temple News, published its surprising results in a report titled Crime & Campus.
In 2014, Temple University had a dramatically lower number of crimes reported than the University of Pennsylvania, The Temple News reports.
Temple has the largest police force of any university nationwide, with a department that employs more than 130 sworn Pennsylvania-certified police officers and several building security guards. The Temple News found the university had a dramatically lower number of crimes reported last year than the University of Pennsylvania and ranked second for the total number of crimes out of six local universities, including Drexel University, Saint Joseph’s University, the University of Pennsylvania, Villanova University and La Salle University.
Temple is aware of the safety concerns on campus, and officials have been working toward making it safer. Last fall, the patrol zone was broadened by nearly 25 square blocks, with the boundaries mostly extended to
the west and southeast of Main Campus.
Throughout Main Campus, there are also about 60 blue emergency phone poles that serve as a direct line to Temple Police, according to the Crime & Campus report, and in the most serious situations, the university sends an email and text alert to registered students and employees notifying them of an incident on or near Main Campus.
Read the full Crime & Campus feature here.
