Arizona State University students in Tempe have a free service to help keep them safe on campus at night.
Called ASU Safety Escort, the service is available to all ASU students on the Tempe campus. Safety Escort is a student run organization that works hand in hand with the Arizona State Police Department to give safe rides to students who have late classes or are up late studying in the library and have to walk to their residence halls at night. The ASU PD monitors all calls that Safety Escort receives, which are mostly requests from students who need to get to and from different points on campus. Safety Escort vans or golf carts, driven by students, will go pick up the student in need of a safe ride.
"We usually pick up people from the library or their dorm and drive them back to their dorm or to the library, so that they don't have to walk and be unsafe," said Safety Escort employee Emma Boersma.
Each night they will have at least two drivers available to give rides. An employee is back at the office and in communication with the student in need of the ride and with the driver picking them up. They use a walkie talkie system to communicate between the office and the driver, the ASU PD can also listen in to the walkie talkie in case of an emergency.
"Late at night there's a lot of creeps walking through out campus and a lot of people walking by themselves feel unsafe, and it's our job to make them safe and to get them from one place to another," said Safety Escort driver Jared Reid.
ASU student Marin Kuntze said she had "creepy" experiences when walking through campus at night. A specific run in with a homeless man last year in her residence hall has made her more prone to use the services offered by Safety Escort.
"I use Safety Escort mainly, I don't live in the GLV anymore, but I do live close to campus so they can still drop me off where I live in my apartment," she said.
She also added that she is more aware of her surroundings when she's alone at night and this service is a great choice if you can't afford an Uber or other ride service to different far points of campus.
This service is offered every day of the week from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m., you can make a call and request a ride at 480-965-1515 or request through the LiveSafe app.
