New Jersey Institute of Technology
The S.L.O.W Initiative
How many students heard the message of your project? 1000
Project description:
Description of project objective and its implementation.
For the final event for our S.L.O.W. initiative, the NJIT Police Department Traffic Division conducted a Cops on Crosswalk detail. The purpose of the detail is to monitor a specific crosswalk on campus to ensure motorists are complying with the law and stopping for pedestrians. The detail has a decoy officer in plain clothes crossing at the intersection. As per guidelines, a 24” orange cone is set at 102 feet from the crosswalk that the decoy uses as a point of reference to start stepping onto the crosswalk. Another officer, known as the spotter, calls out any vehicles in violation, and then uniformed officers will pull over those vehicles and respond accordingly. Education for motorists is an integral aspect of this detail. During the cops and crosswalk detail, the crash campaign had a table near the crosswalk where flashlights, wrist reflectors, and wristbands were distributed. More pledges were also signed during the event.
School/Community Engagement:
How well did they reach their student body and the community? (Examples: connecting with nearby colleges, schools, local police departments, persons affected by crashes, local/county/state officials, local businesses, etc.)
Our first event was a community engagement event focusing on Pedestrian Safety. We partnered with the NJIT student Forensics club at a tabling event where we interacted with over 500 students and explained the importance of our S.L.O.W. traffic campaign. During this event, we provided light refreshments and safety traffic light giveaways to participants. We also partnered with the NJIT Public Safety Traffic Division during a Cops and Crosswalks detail. The primary purpose of this event is to raise awareness for pedestrian safety. Undercover police officers pose as pedestrians crossing at a designated crosswalk. Drivers who failed to yield to these undercover officers were subject to a traffic stop in a designated pullover zone, where officers would educate violators on pedestrian safety or handle it accordingly, depending on the violation. We set up a table near the crosswalk, where we interacted with over 300 people. The focus is also spreading awareness of our SLOW traffic campaign. We acquired additional signatures for the Share the Road pledge and also gave away additional traffic safety lights.
Creativity:
Description of their creative process. What makes their project unique and engaging? (Examples: create artwork, music, plays, unique campaign slogan/logos, etc.)
NJIT Public Safety partnered with several students from the NJIT Forensics Club to create the SLOW traffic safety campaign. This campaign was a joint effort between our department and students, and several slogans, Poster art, and social media posts were created. We had several meetings where everyone was able to brainstorm and come up with effective ideas to spread our message.
Use of Resources
Use of resources to help identify, deliver, assess, and present their project. (Examples: utilizing local/statewide/national data, newspapers, social media, podcasts, etc.)
We created several social media posts, mostly through Instagram, to reach a larger audience. We also created poster billboards with unique graphics to appeal to students, faculty, and staff members.
Evaluation and Impact:
Description of how they measured community engagement (examples: pre/post observational studies, focus groups, surveys, polls/quizzes, interviews, etc.)
We measured our success in community engagement by the several hundred people we interacted with at every event we hosted and by the number of views we received from our social media posts.
PROJECT MEDIA
