Southern Miss Adds Code Blue Emergency Phones to Gulf Park Campus

As University of Southern Mississippi students make their way around the Gulf Park campus for the start of the fall 2015 semester, they will notice a new addition to the landscape of the beachfront campus – Code Blue emergency phones.

With the installation of six new Code Blue emergency phones on the Gulf Park campus, an additional avenue to make contact with an Emergency Service Provider becomes more readily available. Southern Miss, which is taking proactive safety measures by installing the phones on the Gulf Park campus, provides nearly 50 of the same phones on the University's Hattiesburg campus.

“The safety of our students, employees and guests on the Gulf Park campus is very important to Southern Miss,” said Dr. Steve Miller, vice president for the Gulf Park campus. “As our campus continues to grow with new facilities, additional events and an increased student population, we are very pleased to be able to add this extra measure of safety and security throughout campus.”
 
The Code Blue emergency phones are activated with a red button which reacts like a regular phone with a ring tone. Once activated, an additional blue light on the top of the phone will begin flashing and the phone dials the University Police Dispatch Center, which is operational 24 hours a day and seven days a week on the Hattiesburg campus.

In the event a verbal response is not given when the phone is activated and answered by dispatch, the phone location is identified electronically and an officer is dispatched to that location. Depending on the nature of the call, the dispatcher may remain on the line until help arrives. The flashing blue light will continue to flash for a period of time giving responders an additional way of locating the activated phone in an emergency.
 
“One of the first goals of organizing transition of services to a new area is to identify needs that give additional access to timely emergency response,” said Southern Miss Police Chief Bob Hopkins. “In addition, we look for that service to add an additional level of comfort to the campus community.”

To view a map of all the Code Blue emergency phone locations on the Gulf Park campus, visit: http://bit.ly/1MBtjmM.