A woman was raped on USC’s campus Tuesday morning between midnight and 1 a.m. A Carolina Alert was sent out at around 9:30 p.m.
That’s just shy of a 24-hour delay between the assault and when students were notified of it.
Our campus clearly isn’t safe, and that fact is disturbing on its own. But it’s more disturbing that the system that’s tasked with keeping students informed of dangerous situations isn’t functioning at an acceptable level.
In less than a week, there have been three violent crimes on campus. In all three incidents, Carolina Alert didn’t notify students until at least nine hours after the fact.
We understand that police don’t always know about incidents right away, but in this case, they had a general idea by late afternoon. The population directly affected by any alleged crime, especially one as heinous as this, should know as soon as the police do. If not, how can we take the necessary precautions to stay safe?
Daily Gamecock reporters made numerous attempts to contact the Division of Law Enforcement and Safety about the incident, starting around 5 p.m., including a text message that was marked as read at 4:59 p.m. Phone calls from The Daily Gamecock went unanswered until the official alert was sent out.
We understand that law enforcement face a number of challenges, and we know that some crime is inevitable in the middle of the city.
But we also know this: Students deserve better from Carolina Alert, and they ought to be able to walk on campus without fear for their wellbeing.
Right now, that’s not the case, and what we’ve seen over the last week is unacceptable.
We expect better.