A recently launched Web site for college students and faculty is helping to increase safety across campuses nation-wide.
Ucrime.com provides free crime incident maps for more than 200 universities and colleges, according to the Web site's press release.
The Web site is a university-geared extension of Spotcrime.com, a site that provides a similar service for around 130 cities throughout the country, Greg Kastner, the site's co-founder said.
Ucrime.com plots crime data obtained from the university police departments on Google maps, allowing students to see where crime occurs on and around campus, according to a release.
Kastner said the success of Spotcrime.com, which launched Jan. 2008, was the impetus for creating a similar crime mapping system specifically for universities.
Both Kastner and co-founder, Colin Drane, attended the University of Virginia, where Kastner said he remembers a series of on-campus rapes made safety a serious concern.
Ucrime.com, released to universities, including Rutgers, six weeks ago, is a solution to that concern, Kastner said.
The crime data on the Web site is obtained through the stipulations of the Clery Act, enacted in 1990, according to the release. Named for Jeanne Clery, a Lehigh University first-year murdered on campus in 1986, the act requires university police departments to make a publicly accessible log of all crime data.
This act, Kastner said, allows Ucrime.com to make regular updates to its maps. He said he hopes to update the site daily in order to keep students informed of what is happening around them.
Kastner stressed the importance of forging partnerships with university police departments and public safety groups.
"We all have the same goal," he said.
But University Police Chief Rhonda Harris said she is skeptical of Ucrime.com's efficiency in helping to achieve that goal. She said the department does not provide Ucrime.com with data directly, and cannot guarantee the site's reliability.
"I would encourage [students] to review our web page and the information provided on our Safety Matters publication," Harris said through e-mail correspondence.
She cited a case in which the Duke University Police Department reported that the Web site had posted incorrect information about a robbery that occurred on the campus in June.
When the incident was reported in Duke University's newspaper The Chronicle, Major Gloria Graham of the DUPD was quoted cautioning students against relying solely on Ucrime.com for campus safety alerts.
But Kastner was quoted in the same article saying Ucrime.com posts exactly the information made public by university police.
In addition to the official crime data provided through the Clery Act, Ucrime.com displays what Kastner called user-reported crimes. These are reports that any user can upload to the Web site. Because they cannot be verified, the reports are displayed using different icons than those used for official crime data, Kastner said.
Students can use Ucrime.com in a number of different ways.
The site allows its users to input specific addresses in order to see where and when crimes have occurred. It also provides an alert system for those who wish to be notified through e-mail or text messages when a crime has occurred in their area, Kastner said.
Since the site is new, many University students said they have not yet heard of it.
Lavina Jethani, a first-year in the School of Arts and Sciences, said she does not think the site will be of much use.
"I didn't know about the site, but I don't think I'll be using it, because the school already sends out e-mail alerts about recent crimes."
But Kastner said he is sure that Ucrime.com will make a difference in campus life.
He said he thinks the ultimate mission of the site is to provide information that will help students to be safer.
Most students, he said, understand the basics of safety: staying in groups, securing personal belongings and remaining alert.
Ucrime.com is simply attempting to provide a supplement to this common sense, Kastner said. If students are informed about what is happening around them, Kastner said they will be more likely to make safe choices.
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