Many economic models often only incorporate the demand and level of value of the buyers and the supply and cost of the sellers. This may be because it makes economic theories easier to understand on a more general level as well as allows these simpler models to be flexible to fit many situations. In the real world there are many examples in which a bilateral model wouldn't be the best fit to a situation.
During my sophomore year in college at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, I worked as a student patrol officer and our system was definitely of a triangular nature. One of the most important and staple tasks we performed was "SafeWalks" which was a service provided by the University of Illinois Police Department in an effort to ensure that students got home safe at night. SafeWalks works by students calling a phone number, found online, on the back of student ID cards, and advertised around campus, which would direct their call to the University Police Department. From there, the University Police Department would call student patrol and redirect the call to us. Once we're on the phone with the student we're able to get their name and location so that we can find them and escort them to wherever they're trying to get to. Due to the nature of the job and our status as students, SafeWalks were only offered between the hours of approximately 9PM to 3AM.
Clearly this is a triangular model. The student requesting the service has to go through a "third party" before being able to communicate to us. Objectively, the student desiring an escort isn't requesting anything from the University Police Department, however the calls must first be directed to the police before the police redirects them to us (the ones actually providing the service). This begs the question, "Why can't the calls just be sent directly to student patrol instead of having to be redirected by a third party?". Personally I don't know the original intentions when the system was first created. However, I can understand the benefits of having this triangular system that is seemingly inefficient.
One of the major reasons for having the calls directed to the police department first may simply be because the police department wants to make sure the caller is getting the appropriate course of action on a circumstantial basis. When someone calls the SafeWalks number, we initially don't know why they're calling. While we assume that a student is just calling because they need an escort home late at night, that may not always be the case. In an event in which a trained and licensed police officer is necessary instead of a student patrol the police department may deem it necessary for them to respond to the call instead of us. It's a common misconception that student patrol officers are police officers. Although we are equipped by the Division of Public Safety, we definitely are no police officers and have no real authority and relatively limited training. If a student calls SafeWalks under the assumption that they're calling the police, it's safer to go through the trouble of making sure they're not in any real danger by having someone respond who has the capability to act appropriately first. Situations like these, those that require a police officer's attention, have a high probability of needing immediate course of action while situations where a student can wait to go home aren't as pressing.
Student patrol officers are agents of both the student requesting the SafeWalk and the University Police Department. Although not incredibly often, students will have a different view of how we should perform other than how the University Police Department believes we should act. On a few occasions students that we have escorted have expressed discomfort around us. Naturally, especially for first time callers, students don't know who is going to physically respond to their request. The stereotype students have of student patrol officers is that we're all tall, big, and muscular, but in reality only a handful of student patrol officers fit all three of those categories. However, all student patrols are equipped with a radio that has direct line to the police department as well as extensive training making us capable of handling a wide range of situations. While many students may view us as physically beefy officers that owe them this service, the University Police Department views us simply as extra eyes and ears on the street to help take the load off their nights as best as we are capable. The police understands that we are students as well and aren't trained professionals. This gap in expectations may create a clash in views between both parties of how we should perform, however in the end student patrol officers are able to handle the tasks given to them and execute the promise of our job.
In the end I don't think there's an easy way for student patrol officers to shatter preconceptions of callers. While many students expect us to be professional police officers, that simply isn't something we can give them. Our performance relative to our service offered is adequate and the University Police Department agrees. The Division of Public Safety expects us to perform our job to the description and act professionally. Our job is to make sure students are safe, not necessarily comfortable. We always choose to satisfy the University Police Department and the Division of Public Safety because we know that by satisfying them we are doing what we're supposed to. Callers that expect anything far more than what the police department expects of us may just need to lower their expectations to resolve conflict. Of course, I talked on the small minority of students that had expectations too far. The vast majority of students are very grateful to us and the service we provide.
I'm going to assume that members of the student patrol did their jobs earnestly and did not shirk, even with the long hours. So that particular issue issue is off the table. If so, I wonder if this is is really a triangle problem. Consider the following.
ReplyDeleteIn old style taxicab markets, you call up the cab company to get a pickup to take you to your location. (Not all the business is that way but a good bit of it is.) The request to goes through to a person called the dispatcher. The dispatcher then has to route a particular cab to the location. The routing is done by checking availability and location. Usually, the closest available cab gets sent.
If Campus police is playing the role of dispatcher, then it is sensible to me that they get the calls, not individual groups within campus patrol. Indeed, that would be the efficient thing to do.
Now, where your story is different from the Cab situation is as you described it, with the physical makeup of the campus patrol members. One cab is pretty much like another cab. In contrast, not all members of campus patrol are the same, appearance-wise.
It would seem to me that campus police would understand this issue and in your training give you some things to say up front to calm down the people who are first time callers. On the other hand, as you said, there are probably limits to how effective than can be.
So I wonder whether students who use SafeWalks are generally satisfied afterward and if you have some indication of that. I also wonder if the community might be better informed about the SafeWalks service ahead of time, or if it is unlikely that students would learn about it until they actually need it.
Finally, the word is principal, not principle. In your response please change that.
Perhaps I didn't explain the entire system of SafeWalks and student patrol enough to more accurately depict why it does fit a triangle problem. Campus police wouldn't be the role of "dispatcher" because we have a team leader each night that is also a student patrol that would fit the role of "dispatcher" more accurately to how you described cab companies have. Our team leader would radio specific student patrols based off availability and location. The campus police simply redirects the calls to our dispatcher. They do not perform an active role in the SafeWalks program, but student patrol officers still report to campus police as they work in accordance with the Division of Public Safety.
DeleteWith regards to informing the community of a more accurate depiction of who we are, I have found that we are advertised rather highly. As a student, I have witnessed the campus tours the university provides to parents, incoming Freshmen, as well as current students. In all of the tours the guides generally mention SafeWalks as a service the university offers if you are ever afraid to be out at night alone. However, I've heard different tour guides give different descriptions of us. One tour guide said the people who did SafeWalks were "strong, beefy, football players" and another said we were actual police officers. Perhaps if we were better able to articulate that we were students too less people would have misunderstandings and the wrong expectations.
Do you think that when a student does call for patrol officers, the call should go directly to the student patrol officers and bypass the police station? Personally i think when the calls go through the station it adds an additional layer of security to the whole process.
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