When my phone dies, there are many things I cannot do: listen to music, check the dining hall menus, call my friends and get directions. One of those things should not be getting emergency help.
But as the University of Connecticut begins phasing out the emergency blue phones around campus, we will have to increasingly rely on our cellphones for emergency services.
UConn argues that in today’s world, where almost everyone owns a phone, alongside the accessibility of its LiveSafe app and text-to-911 services, the decades-old emergency phones stationed around campus are now obsolete. After all, the phones were activated 166 times in the last five years and only two of those calls required a public safety response.
Let me preface this by saying: The LiveSafe app and all the other online services for help are not bad. Objectively, having these services is an improvment and everyone (you included) should have LiveSafe downloaded already.
But evaluating the need for physical emergency infrastructure misses the point of having it as a failsafe. Under normal circumstances, a phone is usually better for getting emergency help. However, these systems are for circumstances that cannot be evaluated in the context of ordinary situations. Most of us will not have to use a fire extinguisher or a defibrillator in our lives but we don’t remove them from buildings because they might collect dust for years.
Although UConn is right that almost everyone owns a cellphone, owning does not equate to accessibility when it matters.
What happens when a student’s phone dies on a late-night walk? When they lose it at a party? If someone doesn’t have data or the campus Wi-Fi is down? What if someone visits from another school? A parent here for the weekend? Guests attending UConn events? Phones die, and though every student should have the app, the reality is that many students and visitors do not.
I could go on, but even those situations assume regular circumstances. In the midst of an actual emergency, there are even more reasons someone may be unable to access the app.
If someone is being robbed or assaulted on campus, who is to say they still have their phone? If someone is willing to commit assault, rape or theft, will they give the victim time to pull out their phone, unlock it and open LiveSafe — especially if that someone is another student who knows about LiveSafe?
These situations are moments where blue phones are fundamentally different from cellphones. They lower the barrier to entry for emergency services by removing all the assumptions of online services: that you have a phone that is charged, within reach and equipped with the app.
Blue phones also have inherent value besides when they are used. They are designed to be conspicuous and visible. To someone walking alone at night, myself included, there is comfort in the knowledge that there is a direct line to emergency services nearby. Someone committing a crime knows the same thing and the lights are inherently deterrents.
There are no statistics that say how many students feel safer with their presence but judging by the student body response to their removal, I can say with confidence: We do. There are also no statistics for how many crimes are discouraged by their existence. Even though they cannot discourage every crime, their utility cannot be reduced to the number of times the button has been pressed.
Each additional requirement between a person and emergency help that may save them from injury, rape or worse is a point of failure. LiveSafe and text-to-911 make getting help easier for every student but UConn needs to understand that ease comes with a set of expectations that cannot be mitigated in an emergency. Neither needs to replace a physical option that asks almost nothing from the person who needs it.
Students need to know that this debate is not over. UConn parent Billyjoe Contreras has sued to stop the removal of the blue phones, and a remote preliminary hearing that can be viewed by the public on Microsoft Teams is scheduled for Friday at 9:30 a.m. Whether you are a fellow student or a UConn parent — if you really care to “Protect Our Pack,” be there.
In my time here at UConn, I have walked past the blue phones countless times without using them, and I hope I never need to. But if there is a night that anyone’s phone (including mine) is dead, missing or inaccessible, I would still like to see a blue phone illuminating the path in front of us.