by Night Safety Services, UC Berkeley
https://nightsafety.berkeley.edu/nightsafety/escort
BearWalk(link is external) is largely a student-run operation, but it is part of the University Police (UCPD). Dispatchers working behind the scenes and the walkers who show up to get you there are Community Service Officers, known as CSOs. They use RideCell software to dispatch requests and determine the estimated arrival time of your BearWalk escort with wait times generally less than 15 minutes.
After stumbling upon this page for UC Berkeley’s “BearWalk” program, I had the idea for “Walk w/ me”. Instead of running the program through the police department, it could go through OSU’s existing digital infrastructure to find people to walk with. This way no one would have to dedicate time to walking people home. I do think that the precedent being set by Berkeley is useful as a case study for other programs that could be similar.
