Nicholls has 43 call boxes, 12-foot white poles with blue lights on top and emergency decals, which allow people to contact University Police immediately when activated.Craig Jaccuzzo, director of University Police, said that the call boxes on Nicholls campus are some of the “best in the business.”
When the red button on a call box is pressed, the box makes a three-step tone and plays a recorded message.
“Then, you’ll hear a live person say ‘University Police, what is your emergency,’ ” Jaccuzzo said.
A blue light flashes to help the responder know where the box is activated. The call box also immediately sends a location to the University Police Department, and every patrol officer’s portable radio sounds an alert. Dispatch can then communicate with the person who is near the call box.
“You don’t have to talk for an officer to respond,” Jaccuzzo said. “Once the button is pressed, it sends a signal to the station, but if you can communicate through the call box, officers can respond more effectively.”
Jaccuzzo said the officers train on the call boxes twice a week to make sure they function.
“We train 90 percent of the time for 10 percent of action,” Jaccuzzo said. “The more my officers train, it becomes second nature so that they do not have to hesitate.”
He said that students mostly use the call boxes to request services if they become stranded, lost or nervous in an area that is too dark.
“As far as emergencies, I’m thankful to say we haven’t had to use them yet,” Jaccuzzo said.
Jaccuzzo said that Nicholls has always had some form of call box.
“When I first became chief, the boxes only had a push button phone receiver mounted to the buildings,” Jaccuzzo said.
Improvements to the system began in 2005, but the current boxes were not fully operational until 2007.
He said that the call boxes the University has now are totally independent units with communications and power.
“These are state of the art call boxes,” Jaccuzzo said. “Not many universities have them, and we were really lucky to be ahead of the game in that area.”
Each call box runs with solar power through panels that recharge the batteries. The batteries provide the power for the radio to transmit to the University Police Department.
Each call box can be used for two-way communication, or all of the boxes can be activated and used as a PA system.
“We can also hear areas of the campus if we activate a call box,” Jaccuzzo said.
Call boxes were placed in areas on campus that have the highest amount of foot traffic.
Jaccuzzo said that most of the boxes are placed near buildings and dorms.
“We also have a few that may look out of place,” Jaccuzzo said. “They were placed where buildings and sidewalks used to be, and we haven’t moved them yet.
