Slaying brings attention to lack of police call boxes at UGA

ATHENS, Ga. - After a slaying on campus, some University of Georgia students and parents may wonder why the school lacks blue-light call boxes that let people reach police with a single button.

The victim of Thursday’s killing was 22-year-old Laken Hope Riley, a junior at AU’s College of Nursing campus in Athens. After she was found in a wooded area near Lake Herrick, officials quickly classified the death as a homicide.

They had a suspect in custody by just after 5 p.m. Friday.

On Friday, the lack of blue police call boxes was a topic of discussion for many students, like Ulysses Abundez.

“I’m a transfer student from Auburn University. I started here last fall. One thing I noticed immediately, when they were giving me the tour was the lack of like the blue emergency 911 lights,” Abundez said.

UGA was actually one of the first universities in the country to install emergency call boxes in 1988, but the school removed them in 2004 to save money after their limited use.

As many as 28 call boxes were once spread across campus, according to campus police.

“At that time, emergency call boxes represented one of the best available options for people to communicate with police when in need of assistance,” the UGA Police Department says on its website.

“In early 2000, telephone systems began moving away from analog technology towards digital systems. In 2004, the University learned that the phone system infrastructure could no longer analog technology used in the call boxes and that the call box system would cease to function without a costly digital upgrade,” the website states.

The university considered purchasing a new digital call box system at an estimated cost of several hundred thousand dollars.

“Before making that financial commitment, we researched call data on the analog system call boxes,” the agency said.

Over an eight-year span, UGA police received only seven calls from call boxes, “none of which were of an emergency nature,” the agency says.

Abundez doesn’t agree with that thought process.

“Just because something is in use enough in that way doesn’t mean necessarily you should remove it,” Abundez said. “It’s always a nice precaution to have because you never can predict when something like this does happen.”

UGA urges students to use an app called “LiveSafe,” saying most people have access to cellphones at all times.

But some students and parents want the blue light call boxes returned.

An online petition created hours after the student’s death demands “the lack of emergency blue lights has been an ongoing issue that can no longer be ignored.”

The petition was created by a UGA student, and almost 10,000 people had signed by Friday afternoon.

What we know

• On Thursday, a person called UGA police around noon after their friend didn’t return from a morning run at the school’s intramural fields. Police found Riley’s body in a wooded area behind Lake Herrick with “visible injuries,” and she was pronounced dead at the scene.
• The coroner’s office has identified the victim as 22-year-old Laken Hope Riley. Augusta University said she was one of its students at the school’s College of Nursing campus in Athens.
• Foul play is suspected, police said.
• The death is the first homicide on campus in at least 20 years, UGA Police Chief Jeffery Clark said.
• UGA police are working with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Athens-Clarke County Police Department to investigate the incident.
• All classes at UGA were canceled until Monday. The Augusta University College of Nursing also canceled classes on Friday.
• Police ask anyone with information about the incident to call 706-542-2200.

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