Thursday, August 23, 2001
Froggie Five-0 hopes use continues to rise
James Zwilling
staff reporter

Following another year of increased escort service, Froggie-Five-O begins providing safety escorts to females and males Friday.

Froggie-Five-O escorted 19,970 people during the 2000-2001 school year — 700 more students than in the previous year, and the most in its four-year history.

Crime Prevention Officer Pam Christian said TCU Police are happy with the increase in escorts and hope the trend will continue.

“Our basic goals for the semester are to increase numbers and make [TCU Police] more effective,” Christian said. “We want Froggie-Five-O to ensure the safety of our females and also for the escorts to serve as extra eyes and ears for Campus Police.”

Christian said that although the TCU area has the lowest crime rate in Fort Worth, it is still important to have an escort program in place.

“Even though this area of town has a low crime rate, we have to do our best for our female students,” she said.Christian said that although Froggie-Five-O is designed for female students, male students requesting a safety escort will not be denied.

Amy Lightner, a freshman biology major, said that although safety escorts are a good idea, students need to be aware of their surroundings at all times.

“Students need to know when they are unsafe and safety escorts can help them, but [escorts] don’t do much good when students abuse it because they don’t want to walk,” Lightner said.

Christian said TCU and other private institutions have an advantage when it comes to implementing programs like Froggie-Five-0 because of their size.

For instance, the University of North Texas and the University of Texas at Arlington both offer police escort services to students, but are unable to have as small an escort-to-student ratio as TCU because they are larger schools.

“It’s difficult to get a program [like Froggie-Five-O] in place,” Christian said. “The TCU Police Department is a lot better than most because large universities can’t always focus on police.”

In addition to the Campus Police officers, TCU has about 25 student escorts who are trained by Froggie-Five-O supervisors.

Froggie-Five-O operates seven days a week from 8 p.m. until 1 a.m. and can be requested by calling Campus Police at extension 7777 or by simply using one of the emergency phones located on campus. Froggie-Five-O will be available after 7 p.m. when daylight savings time ends Oct. 28.

Christian said many students are unaware that they can use the emergency phones to request the service and should feel free to do so.

Students needing rides when Froggie-Five-O is not in operation may obtain an escort by calling TCU Police 24 hours a day.

James Zwilling
j.g.zwilling@student.tcu.edu

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