Services and Support

Public Safety can provide you with a safety escort to and from University locations if no other reasonable alternatives exist, such as established bus routes or the Safe Ride Home service. To request an escort, call (585) 275-3333 or pick up a Blue Light phone. We acknowledge emergencies and other high-priority calls for service first, so there may be some delay in our arrival.

Public Safety can help you get in your vehicle if you’re locked out or have a dead battery. For assistance, the vehicle must be on a University campus and you must be the registered owner of the vehicle. When we arrive, we’ll ask you to sign a form to allow us to do these services on your car.

MERT is an NYS Certified basic life support first response team. They provide 24/7 emergency medical response during the academic year on University campuses.

How to contact MERT: To request emergency medical services, call (585) 275-3333 on the River Campus, the Medical Center, or the Eastman School of Music.

When to dial 911: If you need emergency medical services off-campus, dial 911.

If you have lost an item, please contact Public Safety at (585) 275-2552. If you’ve found a lost item and want to report it, please call (585) 275-3333.

Each year, the Adopt-a-Hall program assigns Public Safety officers to one or two residence halls and makes them readily available for concerns or questions from the students. These officers also serve as a liaison between Public Safety and the hall’s RAs, GHAs (graduate house advisors), and Residential Life staff. Additional duties for these Public Safety officers include spending time with students, attending hall events and meetings, and making extra security checks and patrols of the halls.

The goal of the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training is to prepare officers in the field to identify cues of a person who may be emotionally distressed or mentally ill and how to respond and handle situations safely and effectively. Together law enforcement, mental health professionals and individuals living with these illnesses have come up with this training to better assist everyone in understanding what someone is going through and the right steps to take when more help will be needed for the individual.

The CIT course is part of the basic officer academy training for DPS officers, and after it participants are able to:

• Identify the behavioral signs of emotional distress
• Identify the major causes of emotional distress, mental illness, substance use, medical conditions and situational problems
• List criteria needed to apply the mental health law and identify situations where this would be appropriate to use, such as;
  • Substantial risk of harm to self or others
  • Instances that may require transport to a health care facility (unable to care for themselves)
• Assess and intervene effectively in situations involving emotionally distressed persons
• Enhance physical safety of an emotionally disturbed person and others involved in situations

This training along with along with an established relationship with the University Counseling Center (UCC) and 24/7 access to UCC counselors allows DPS to provide quick and compassionate service to the community we serve.

Learn more at http://www.rochester.edu/uhs/ucc/