Keeping our Campuses and Communities Safe

Since the events of September 11, 2001, the U.S. population has a heightened awareness that tragedies can and do strike ordinary people without warning. The same can be said for the unfortunate abundance of campus shootings, where the next "9/11" occurred in 2007 on the campus of Virginia Tech. And yet, subsequent investigations into these horrific events often reveal that clues existed that might have pointed to the eventual violent outcome. It is unquestionable that to dramatically improve the safety and security of our cities we must rely upon the millions of eyes of our fellow citizens to unearth these clues as they pursue their daily activities. But ordinary citizens on the street are often reluctant to get involved and lackthe tools to overcome their reticence to report suspicious activity. In this article, we examine several indicators of campus and community violence, as well as a novel technology to facilitate communication of potential threats to safety before they become a reality