PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Amid a recent rash of violent crime near campus, Temple University is bringing on former Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey to conduct a safety audit.
The campus has been uneasy following consistent gun violence and high-profile crimes, including the shooting death of 21-year-old Temple student Samuel Collington in November. He was shot and killed a block from campus in broad daylight. Just this past week, 23-year-old Hyram Hill — the son of a Philadelphia police officer — was gunned down near Temple University Hospital.
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The city’s homicide rate dropped when Ramsey led the police force between 2008 and 2016. Charlie Leone, Temple’s executive director of campus safety, expects Ramsey to take five or six months to evaluate security in and around campus.
“How are we doing with our personnel, our deployment of the safety infrastructure that we have? How’s our lighting, our cameras, our emergency phone?” said Leone.
Temple is also forming a safety task force, boosting the number of campus police and launching a safety app. Leone said the Rave Guardian app will allow students to text campus police directly and arrange physical and virtual escorts.
Leone added the university welcomes Ramsey’s scrutiny and recommendations.
“We respect him in the law enforcement community,” he said. “Our professors here have high regard. He did a lot of work with our professors at Temple and I think all of us are really looking forward to Commissioner Ramsey and his team coming in here and giving us another look to see how we’re doing our safety plan at Temple.”
The terms of Ramsey’s contract are still being negotiated.