Matt Lige, deputy chief of public safety at WCC. Lily Merritt | Washtenaw Voice
By Brian Babcock
Staff Writer
Within 24 hours two shootings left 32 people dead in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio early last month. Mass shootings are an issue in the United States, and all over the country people are taking notice of these tragedies.
From the student level to the faculty, WCC is working to keep the campus free of gun violence, with plans to conduct full scale mock drills on campus in the future.
It’s the public safety department’s goal to prevent any form of attack from getting a foothold, and instead neutralizing it immediately.
“The chief of police here and the deputy chief do a great job of educating the campus on ‘if you see something then say something’ . . . you’ll never be a bother to us because we want to make the campus is safe,” said Paul Gomez, a campus resource officer at WCC.
Students are also encouraged to use the new WCC Safe app, as this can be used to notify campus security of suspicious activity in a low-profile manner.
“They can send a message directly to our dispatch,” Gomez said. “Seeing someone on their phone is not uncommon . . . the app is huge and it will help as well.”
The app is available for free on the Apple’s App Store and Google Play.
Another safety measure coming to WCC in the future are mock shooter drills. According to Gomez, these measures are currently at the beginning stages with round-table talks coming soon.
“I know the chief and the deputy chief are, along with the college, in small stages, working toward a full-blown exercise on campus . . . we come with a lot of experience that will help deal with those issues,” Gomez said.
The public safety department has worked with college faculty and staff to educate them on what measures they should take if tragedy strikes.
Maryam Barrie, a professional faculty member in the English department participated in the training.
“They started off with talking about El Paso and Dayton, they showed us footage from that . . . I couldn’t watch the whole thing . . . I guess the point of them showing that to us was to desensitize us to how random and out of nowhere those events always seem to be,” Barrie said.
The public safety office can be reached at 734-973-3411, or extension 3411 if using a campus phone. Crime tips can also be reported using the WCC Safe app.
