As the search for University of Virginia student Hannah Graham continues, university and local government officials are looking for ways to boost security on campus and in the surrounding neighborhoods and commercial districts, the Cavalier Daily reported.
Graham, 18, was last seen three weeks ago at an outdoor mall about a mile and a half from campus.
A new committee, created by the university, Albemarle County and the city of Charlottesville, will consider short- and long-term security improvement plans while working to pinpoint potential trouble spots through crime data, and it will also supervise an audit of current security practices. This is in addition to a safety group that the university has already formed since Graham’s disappearance.
Improvements will likely include more blue light emergency phones, surveillance cameras and lighting.
“Feeling safe and actually being safe is a basic right of those who live in our community,” Albemarle County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Jane Dittmar said in a statement.
Additionally, the university is analyzing other urban schools, like Johns Hopkins University and the University of Pennsylvania, to determine what other safety procedures should be adopted, the Washington Post reported.
Graham’s abduction has also caused students to reconsider their attitude toward personal safety.
“People think that they are invincible and that ‘bad things are not going to happen to me’ and ‘I’ll be fine walking two blocks home alone at night,’ ” sophomore Morgan Phelps, who lives in the same off-campus apartment as Graham, told the Post. “An event like this has really opened our eyes.”
