A new crime-reporting sys­tem, “Bulldogs Text Tip,” is avail­able for any­one in the Ferris com­mu­nity to report a crime via text message.

The Department of Public Safety (DPS) at Ferris decided to look more into con­duct crime report­ing, said Tricia Walding-Smith, assis­tant man­age­ment coor­di­na­tor of DPS.

Staff, stu­dents, fac­ulty, vis­i­tors or any­one around cam­pus who wit­nesses a crime can now report it to DPS via text mes­sage. The the text should be sent to bulldogstexttip@ferris.edu.

Walding-Smith thinks it will be a method that peo­ple might feel more apt to use because it is dif­fer­ent from being on the phone with every­one hear­ing what you are saying.

“You can eas­ily pick up your cell phone and peo­ple think you’re tex­ting a funny mes­sage to a friend, but you’re sub­mit­ting crime infor­ma­tion,” said Walding-Smith.

She said this is meant to be more of a crime report­ing line for those whoh want to keep their iden­tity con­fi­den­tial or not come to the police station.

“The pro­gram is not meant as an emer­gency line…if you encounter an actual emer­gency, please call 911,” said Walding-Smith.

Ferris Police Chief Marty Bledsoe came up with the idea of Bulldogs Text Tip. Bledsoe said report­ing a crime via text mes­sage may be eas­ier when it comes to wit­ness­ing behav­iors of concern.

“One of the dif­fi­cul­ties in shar­ing infor­ma­tion about the crime is they ask them­selves if it’s worth it or not,” said Bledsoe.

Instead of mak­ing a phone call, they can just quickly report the inci­dent via text mes­sage with­out feel­ing like they’re wast­ing time, he added.

Bledsoe explained that report­ing descrip­tions of a per­son or object involved in a crime would be help­ful as well.

“Just lit­tle tid­bits can nar­row it down,” said Bledsoe. “You can give descrip­tions with unique information.”

Ferris stu­dents have dif­fer­ent views on the Bulldogs Text Tip system.

Amy Swain, senior in restau­rant and food indus­try man­age­ment, said, “I think stu­dents would be more likely to report a crime via text mes­sage because it’s eas­ier and wouldn’t take much time out of their day.”

Other stu­dents said they would not use the system.

“I don’t think I would. I won’t take the time to do the whole text and hope I did it right,” said Kyle Walch, a fresh­man in the HVAC program.

Walch also said, “I would rather call them and talk to them in per­son, then I know I got through. I think it’s just eas­ier to call.”

“Not only is this a tool for report­ing crime, it’s also a way for peo­ple to get involved in their com­mu­nity and cre­ate a safer envi­ron­ment,” said Walding-Smith. n