Peoria: not exactly the safest place to live..

By: Katie Casey

When people think about Peoria, they don’t necessarily think “safety.” The Bradley Police Department has been taking strides to improve the safety of students on campus. Check out the trend of crimes in Peoria in the last couple of years, a map of the most recent crime that has taken place at Bradley, and the different measures that the BU Police are taking to assure the safety of students.

Bradley police take strides to improve campus safety

Peoria is not known to be the safest place when it comes to crime. Here at Bradley, students don’t feel very comfortable walking at night because of incidents that have happened on campus.

“I don’t feel safe if I am walking by myself,” said senior Julie Piatek. “If I am alone and walking at night, I call someone and talk to them on the phone. I feel more comfortable if I am talking to someone in case something was to happen.”

Senior Public Relations major Taylor Fisher doesn’t feel much safer walking on campus by herself, either.

“I have never felt like I was in danger when I walk around campus at night, but I know that bad things can happen” Fisher said. “Because of that, I usually only walk really short distances when I know I am going to be alone. Otherwise I will drive or walk with at least one other person so I feel a little safer.”

To combat crime on campus, the Bradley University Police Department has been taking strides to improve the safety of students on campus. There are emergency poles posted around campus in case a problem arises. Students can go to the pole and dial 911 or press an emergency button that will automatically send cops to that location.

In addition to the poles, there are walking escorts around campus. You can call the escorts and they will walk you wherever you want to go on campus so that you do not have to walk alone.

Students can also call the Bradley Police for an escort. They will pick students up and take them where they need to go.

Most recently, however, the Bradley Police recently launched the safety van service which will pick up students with a valid Bradley I.D. and take them where they need to go for free. The service will take student anywhere on campus, and also extends a few blocks off campus to highly student populated residential areas.

“I really like the idea of the walking escorts and the new safety van,” Piatek said. “I don’t like going to the library at night because I have a Mac and other items of value, but I am willing to go more often with these options available to me.”

Even though Bradley Police have been making efforts to help students, not all students plan on taking advantage of the available safety features on campus.

“I don’t really like using that kind of stuff,” said Garrett Hay, senior accounting major. “I never want to call and bother for a police escort. I get impatient and don’t really wait, so I just walk home regardless if it’s nighttime or not.”

However, Hay did say that the crime alerts about armed robberies on campus have been concerning.

“You never really want to see crime on or around campus,” Hay said. “It’s concerning to everyone. Especially with all of the texts lately, it would be a good idea for me to take the safety van or call for a police escort. You never know what could happen, and it’s smart for everyone to just play it safe.”

 Safety van provides students with free and safe transportation service

I rode along in the safety van and asked the drivers some questions about the new service. I also interviewed a student to see her perspective on the van.

Google Map of crime at bradley

I mapped out the last 5 incidents of crime at Bradley that required emergency text messages and emails to be sent to students. I got the information from the Bradley Police Crime Log.

Crime in Peoria Data Analysis

I used Peoria crime statistics from 2008-2011 to find the average number of crimes in the area, alone with the total number of crimes. I also created a pie-chart that shows the percentage of different types of crimes in the area. I received the crime statistics from the City of Peoria website.

Click here to view the data interrogations.