The recent incident of “forcible touching” that occurred in Collegetown this month reminded us of the psychological pitfalls of living in a small town like Ithaca. The Cornell community was alerted via an e-mail, which informed it that a young woman had been assaulted. It reminded us to walk at night in groups, lock our doors and windows and inform Cornell and Ithaca police of any suspicious activity.

That was it: there have been no notifications following up on what had happened, and no description of the attackers was made public for over a week. When the descriptions were later released, they were only made available on the IPD’s website — which few if any students checked. Not only was this time lapse irresponsible, but the fact that the Ithaca Police relied on us — a student-run newspaper — to publicize the identities of the suspects, was disturbing. Why was a crime alert so widely circulated without following up on important details later?

Perhaps the handling of this incident shines light on a broader issue: a lack of collaboration between the Ithaca and Cornell police. Collegetown is a gray area, where the Judicial Administrator and CUPD have some jurisdiction. However, many campus-wide safety measures stop at the campus boundary. On campus, blue lights may act as a deterrent. But they are of no service to the student population that resides in Collegetown. Further, other safety precautions such as free late night bus rides and an escort service are not well publicized beyond what is said on campus tours.

Living in Ithaca makes us ambivalent to safety precautions. Crimes, such as robberies, break-ins and sexual assault are rare here compared to crime rates in many big cities. We take our own safety for granted. When a crime does happen — like it did a few weekends ago — student response is easily amplified. While a crime alert intended to put students on the lookout is a good thing, with no follow through, such a message results in nothing more than garnering either fear or apathy in the community.

We would like to see better collaboration between the Cornell and Ithaca police, more responsible communication in the form of e-mail alerts and more widely publicized safety precautions on and off campus. Collegetown may seem like an insular, safe community. And for the most part it is. But we feel it is time to reassess how Cornell, Collegetown and Ithaca work together to ensure the safety of students.