By Christina Capatides

WASHINGTON – The corner of his mouth curled upward into a meek smile as the passenger-side door slammed closed.  Maurice appeared flustered and uncomfortable in his navy Department of Public Safety uniform.  Yet, his timid demeanor communicated an innocent affability that put his passengers at ease.  He slouched awkwardly against the fraying leather of the van’s graphite steering wheel and slowly accelerated the SafeRides vehicle forward.

“It’s nice.  A good starting first-time job, not a career or anything.  It’s just a good experience because it’s my first full-time job,” he said.  “But I’m not really a normal SafeRides operator.”

Maurice, a DPS officer who did not want his last name used, may be more typical than he realizes.  A night spent driving around Georgetown with him revealed three shortcomings: an inability to properly locate addresses, a faulty system of communications and a total absence of SafeRides vehicles on certain nights.  According to Georgetown students, these shortcomings reflect the overarching problems with SafeRides. 

Georgetown University established SafeRides over fifteen years ago to offer students the option of requesting individual rides to or from campus and any location in West Georgetown and Burleith.  Doris Bey, Associate Director of the Department of Public Safety, says the program has enhanced protection in the neighborhoods surrounding Georgetown’s campus.  “It has been observed overall that the number of incidents of crime was reduced.  Also, fewer complaints from community members were also realized since the inception of the SafeRides.” 

Despite Bey’s claims, Georgetown University students receive alarming Public Safety Alert emails weekly detailing incidents that SafeRides and other Georgetown programs have failed to prevent in the streets surrounding the university.  Seven of these emails have been issued so far this semester.  To investigate these concerns, I accompanied Maurice on his rounds from 10 p.m. to midnight on a Sunday evening this fall.

A static-laden voice informed Maurice via radio that a girl had requested to be picked up at 1708 37th Street.  So, Maurice turned left onto R Street, right onto 36th and right onto S.  His eyes narrowed as they scanned the residence numbers, left and right.  Finally, he stopped the 9-seater van in front of 1708.  The only problem: he was on the wrong street.

“I don’t like to wait more than five minutes because then you get a big back-up,” he said.  “We won’t wait much longer because the people after will be complaining that we be taking too long.  I mean, other people say other things, but in my experience the wait for SafeRides is the fact that, like this, there will be a no-show and then you sit here waiting.”

After about 15 minutes, Maurice sighed and radioed the main office.  “Yeah, I’m standing by at 1708 37th,” he said.  The voice on the other end of the radio offered to call the girl in question, but Maurice was frustrated and drove away. 

Because he had not received any other calls, Maurice drove along the desolate Georgetown streets at random.  “If a student needs a ride, I’ll just pick them up,” he said.

Eventually, he brought the van to a stop before the front gates of the university.  “I’m going to stay here for a bit.  Nobody’s out,” he said. 

He was right.  It was a frigid Sunday night and Georgetown’s students had clearly chosen to remain indoors.  Healey Circle, generally a densely populated feature of the Georgetown campus, was lifeless.  The lawns to either side sat similarly barren.  Even Alumni Square, a series of cubic buildings that many students call home, appeared vacant through the van’s thick windshield. 

Just then a girl approached the right side of the van and pulled the door open.  “I called,” she announced.

“Oh, you did?” replied a surprised Maurice.  “Oh gee.” 

After radioing the office, Maurice learned that several other students had also called while his radio was off.  One was still waiting for a ride outside of McCarthy dormitory.  Others, though, had given up on their “safe ride” home, opting to walk instead.  Considering the inefficiency of the SafeRides pick-ups so far that night, this was not necessarily a nonsensical decision.

“A lot of times when I’m coming home from being out at night, I don’t even bother to call SafeRides anymore.  In the past, they have taken so long to come that I feel safer walking home alone than standing on a street corner alone,” said Elizabeth Niles, a Senior in the College.

An Editorial in the Georgetown Voice on September 11, 2008, cited similar grievances and suggested possible ways to improve the SafeRides service.  “Students must wait on a street corner until their ride comes, exposing them to risks the program is designed to prevent.  Instead, SafeRides operators should take students’ cell phone numbers and have the driver call the student as soon as they arrive at the specified address,” the author suggested.  “DPS should also consider either adding additional vans or restructuring its system of picking up students.  As it stands, SafeRides regularly takes too long to be a viable option, leading to its low level of student use.”

Dan Starck, a Georgetown University alumnus, was attacked by three men carrying blunt objects while walking home to his house in Burleith one night.  After being hit in the head with what he thinks was a bike lock, Starck ran away from his attackers.  “One of them yelled out, ‘Yeah, keep running motherf*cker,’ which turned out to be bad advice because they chose one of 28 white guys around Georgetown that actually could outrun them,” boasted Starck.  “After about 150 meters, they gave up and I made it home.”  He had chosen to walk home to T Street, rather than calling SafeRides because of its reputation for inefficiency. 

These students’ complaints about SafeRides’ unreliability are justified.  The Department of Public Safety’s website states that, “A SafeRide may be obtained from 8 p.m. until 2 a.m., Sunday through Wednesday, and 8 p.m. until 3 a.m., Thursday through Saturday, by dialing the Department of Public Safety Escort Service at (202) 784-RIDE.”  On the contrary, while conducting research for this article, I unsuccessfully attempted to summon a SafeRides vehicle for myself on Tuesday, October 14, Wednesday October 15, and Thursday, October 16.  My 40 minutes of phone calls on each of these nights went unanswered. 

When questioned about the absence of SafeRides vehicles on these nights, Maurice responded, “I’ve heard about kids having long waits, but never not being able to get in at all.  That’s bad!  That makes us look really bad.”

Unfortunately, that was not the only incident I encountered during my investigation that made SafeRides look really bad.  Due to a malfunctioning radio system and a lack of knowledge about Georgetown’s streets, Maurice was only successful in picking up one student during the several hours that I drove around with him on Sunday night.

He informed me that there is a shortage of people volunteering to serve as SafeRides drivers.  Perhaps, in light of this shortage, it is a blessing that there are DPS officers operating these vans at all.  Even if they are unfamiliar with the neighborhoods that they are patrolling.  Even if they are unwilling to identify themselves with the program.  Even if the service that they provide is somewhat less than perfect.