Code blue emergency is the name of the Pierce College safety system that is going through an investigation to be upgraded. The blue box system is triggered by fake calls more than it is by real emergencies. If you take a walk around all 427 acres of Pierce’s campus, you will notice a pattern of 22 blue emergency boxes scattered consistently throughout the grounds. These boxes are equipped with telephones to use if there is an emergency situation that takes place on campus. With a student population of 20,000, Pierce caters to more people than many local cities do. The school population is larger than the cities of Westlake Village, San Marino and Malibu, according to the 2005 U.S. Census. Certain cities have their own branch of the police department, like the city of Burbank. Pierce, you may agree to consider one of those cities. The college has its very own security staff on campus at all times. “I’d say more people shuffle in and out of the Pierce campus on a given day than does the city of Calabasas,” said Paul Nieman, Pierce’s director of college facilities, who is in charge of all the electrical work at the school and handles the emergency box system at least several times a week. The single-button boxes provide a direct-connect phone call to the sheriff’s department on campus. When activated, a strobe light is set off on top of the box. Angie Moore, who works in the sheriff’s office, is familiar with the emergency call box system. “We get anywhere from none to a couple of calls a week,” said Moore. “People use them to call in fights on campus or if their car is dead and needs a jump,” she said. According to Moore, fake calls are placed more often than are legitimate ones. “Students will press the button and walk away,” she said. There is no penalty for making a faux call. If an officer sees a student using the call box for a non-emergency, they will be told not to abuse the system again, according to Moore. Six new boxes have been installed within the past few years. The most recent box that was added is located in the new village area at Pierce, which is home to many clasrooms and faculty offices. “We are doing lots of future investigating to improve the system,” said Nieman. “We are looking into a new type of system that is a different brand and runs through a computer to frequently test the system.” Currently, sheriff’s personnel manually check each station every week to ensure the emergency boxes are working correctly at all times. With a computerized system, sheriff’s officials would not have to spend time testing the individual boxes. “Having to maintain one system instead of 22 would save the sheriff’s (department) a lot of valuable time,” said Nieman. A new emergency system would make the sheriff’s job easier and also keep the college updated with new technology. It would also be more expensive than the already installed blue code emergency system. “It’s something we’re looking into if we can get it for a good price,” said Nieman.