The Department of Public Safety asks students, faculty, staff and visitors who use the newly implemented safety escort service to remember that it is a service for safety and not for convenience.

“DPS is trying to emphasize that the HELP Van or Jeep are not just rides because people don’t feel like walking,” said Lisa Safaeinili, the department’s manager of safety and health development.

Instead, the service is a measure of safety, and DPS doesn’t want people to abuse it, Safaeinili said.

As of Aug. 21, DPS and the Parking Division provide students, faculty, staff and visitors a safety escort service that runs from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., seven days a week. This is the first time that Iowa State public safety officials have coordinated an escort service.

In past years a campus escort service was organized by students on a men’s residence hall floor in the Union Drive Association. However, the service was difficult to keep up because it was a student run program, officials said.

The safety escort service is part of a community policing effort to increase the safety on the ISU campus, Safaeinili said.

People may phone the service at 294-4444 to receive an escort, or a ride from the HELP Van or Jeep by either a parking division student or a DPS student reserve officer, Safaeinili said.

The student reserve officers may be identified by a DPS shoulder patch and will be wearing a light blue shirt and navy pants. The parking division students will also have DPS identification, Safaeinili said.

Safaeinili said people may request either a male or female escort, and generally their request will be granted. There are more male escorts than female escorts, she said.

Director of DPS Loras Jaeger said if the safety escort service is successful, DPS may expand the service and add other options.