The University of Georgia on Tuesday said it has committed more than $7.3 million on new safety measures, including emergency call boxes and a bigger police budget, following the death of Laken Riley, who was killed on the Athens campus last week.
UGA President Jere Morehead said he met with campus law enforcement officials Tuesday morning to hear their recommendations and approved each one.
The $7.3 million investment includes what UGA said will be a permanent 20% increase to the police department budget to recruit and retain officers by offering more competitive pay and to add more safety personnel. The current budget for the UGA police force covers just over 100 personnel.
Credit: Courtesy photo
Credit: Courtesy photo
The additional personnel will be assigned to areas on campus where students gather at night, such as student centers and libraries. Only UGA students and employees will be able to enter the main library and the McBay Science Library in the evening.
The funding also will pay for more cameras, lighting and perimeter fencing, license plate readers and the installation of emergency call box systems across campus. Online petitions that circulated over the last few days urged UGA to invest in “blue light” call stations that can connect with police by a push of a button. The university removed similar devices in 2004 as cellphone usage proliferated.
In a news release, UGA said the new call box systems will “utilize new multi-functional capabilities that also incorporate security cameras and additional lighting.”
UGA said it also will add four hours of coverage to its RideSmart program, which provides students with discounted Lyft rides. The program will now run from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.
“The protection of our students, faculty and staff at the University of Georgia is always top of mind for me and our senior administration, and we are continually evaluating our safety programs,” Morehead said in a written statement.
Parents and students have pushed UGA to add more security measures to the campus, with those calls intensifying after Riley’s death. Riley was a nursing student at Augusta University’s Athens campus and before that was enrolled at UGA.
Credit: Nell Carroll for the AJC
Credit: Nell Carroll for the AJC
The day after her body was found near the intramural fields, police arrested Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, and charged him with murder. Ibarra, a citizen of Venezuela, lives in Athens and unlawfully entered the country, according to authorities. He has no known affiliation with the university and investigators don’t believe he knew Riley.
The university will pay for the upgrades through state money and private donations.
UGA said the spending comes on top of more than $16 million in safety investments the campus has made during the last eight years.
