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UC launching safety ambassadors

university of cincinnati
Courtesy University of Cincinnati
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Provided

The University of Cincinnati is stepping up efforts to improve safety around its main campus.

Block By Block Safety Ambassadors will fan out in neighborhoods surrounding University Heights. The idea is to improve safety and security in high foot-traffic areas. Crime around the UC campus has been making students and neighbors increasingly uneasy during the past year.

In a release the university says:

“The UC Ambassadors are part of a number of strategies being implemented to enhance public safety on and off campus,” said, UC interim Public Safety Director Robert Ambach. “The purpose is not to replace additional police patrols, which have been effective in reducing violent incidents off campus, but rather to supplement these policing efforts.”

Block By Block is the same program many people are used to seeing in downtown Cincinnati in places such as Fountain Square. Ambassadors in bright shirts patrol high-volume areas offering help, directions and generally acting as additional eyes and ears for police.

The UC team consists of five ambassadors and an operations manager.

"The ambassadors selected for our team were hand-picked from a pool of more than 100 applicants and were selected based on their personalities as well as their backgrounds," Ambach said.

UC's Block By Block team will patrol areas east and south of campus, especially along Short Vine and the U Square development, from 6:00 p.m. to 2:30 a.m.

Credit Provided / University of Cincinnati
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University of Cincinnati
This map outlines where Block By Block ambassadors will focus their efforts.

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