The Escort Service

To the Editors of the Crimson:

At the request of Chief Chafin, I have been asked to respond to Rebekah Zuckerman's letter in October 21st's Crimson. As a Police Sergeant assigned to the Security Services Unit, I would like to set the record straight.

Ms. Zuckerman's letter perpetuates the rumor that the escort car is unavailable from 12 midnight to 1 am nightly. Like most rumors, it has some basis in fact. The escort car at one time went to the Medical School on specific nights when student workers were transported back to the Cambridge Campus at the end of their shifts. Since their shifts ended shortly before midnight, the car was generally back in Cambridge and free by 12:15. In an effort to 'fine tune' our service to the greater need of a greater number of students, we have discontinued the Medical School run entirely, leaving student workers in the Medical area to make their own transportation arrangements.

If delays for the escort car seem unduly long between midnight and I am, it is because calls begin to stack-up during that hour. The fact that the shuttle bus runs less frequently at this time creates a sudden upsurge in the number of students requesting escorts.

Another factor causing delays is abuse of the service. For example, calls for escorts increase dramatically during rainy nights; the inference being that people don't like to walk in the rain. Many times the driver arrives at the called-for location to find multiple escorts such as 5 or 6 people who could safely walk in a group to their destination. Likewise, the escort driver is confronted by the lone caller who insists that she/he has to be escorted to a location deep into the reaches of Somerville, North Cambridge or some other off Campus location, usually at a time when the 'T' is still running. There is always the extreme example of abuse such as the time that the escort driver was greeted by 2 callers with boxes and a trunk moving from one address to another and then got called back for the second move of the night! In fairness the escort driver is usually hard pressed to decline an escort once he or she arrives at the called-for pick up point. Police Dispatchers, likewise, don't interrogate a caller as to who they are, or where they are going.

The escort service was never intended to be a private livery car nor a substitute taxicab. Instead, it was designed to convey students from one point to another when no other safe means of transportation is available. The fact that one has to wait 40 minutes between shuttle bus runs does not mean that the shuttle bus is an unavailable means of transportation and that the bus rider should instead call the escort car. It means that the particular student should be prepared to wait for the next bus, or time his/her departure around the bus schedule.

In the final analysis, I and my fellow Police Officers take professional pride in being of service to the Harvard Community and in keeping Harvard a safe place to work and study. We encourage students to use the escort service and are gratified by its increase in demand. However, we encourage you with a note of restraint in our words: Please use the escort car when you really need to, not because it is a mere convenience. If everyone uses the escort only when really needed, everyone who really needs as escort will get one. Arthur G. Luongo, Sergeant