Police need to increase weekday safety measures

Editorial by Kernel staff. E-mail

Chances are, when you’re walking or driving near campus on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday, one part of the scenery is the same: police officers in cars, on bikes and maybe even on horses.

On Sunday, when you’re making your walk or drive to or from the library, however, the scenery is different. It looks like the police forces have gone into hiding, maybe to prepare for the next weekend of party busting.

For the past two weeks, the Kernel has covered the issue of campus safety because of the five robberies on or near campus. It has been evident that UK Police, Lexington Police and other UK organizations taking measures to ensure the recent spike of robberies does not happen again.

According to a Sept. 27 Kernel article, SAFECATS, a safe and free escort service for students, has been working harder to aid students, and on Thursday, Student Government and UK Police will host a safety forum for students to address their concerns and to learn safety tips. While these are solid steps to solving the problem, this should have happened before the five robberies.

UK and Lexington Police should have patrolled the streets on and around campus on weeknights in equal intensity to weekends — before the robberies, not afterward.

It’s no secret that police are in full force Thursday through Saturday, searching for the nearest party to bust and the nearest underagers to cite. But when the parties are over and students are walking the streets in early morning hours? Or, when a robbery occurs on a party street on a weekday and on a walk home from the library, perhaps, instead of a party? Where are the police then?

Police have made visible efforts to improve safety during the week, but this needs to become the norm and not the after-effect.

Police need to continue to swarm the streets to bust or prevent weekday robbers, too.