KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) -- A small community just came came back together, as tens-of thousands of UT students kick off a new school year, police want you to be aware of potential safety issues.

Whether you are a student, a parent, or someone who will venture around campus at some point this year, now that there are more people around UT crime has more targets.

Victoria Knight is a Freshman, and she said, "I still don't know where a lot of stuff is."

Victoria is a Knoxville native, but new to UT's campus. She says she's prepared for her education, and she hopes for her safety as well.

Victoria said, "I was in Presidential Courtyard the other night, like 11-ish and I didn't have any friends with so I walked back by myself to Morrell and I really felt fine, but there were a lot of people walking back and forth, if it was like deserted, I probably wouldn't have."

Captain Keith Lambert with the UT Police Department said, "The most important thing we want to remind students about are making good decisions about their personal safety."

Captain Lambert, along with the approximately 100 members of the UT Police Department, work to keep everyone in the campus area safe.

Lambert said, "We've just enhanced our presence especially during this first part of the semester, to make sure that all the new people get familiar with everything that we have people in place to be able to help them, and we want to discourage anybody that doesn't belong here from being here."

Plus, they're upgrading the emergency blue-light phone system on campus, for the nearly 30-thousand students.

Lambert said, "Those are going to give us not only the emergency buttons to contact 911, but it's also going to provide us with an external PA system to make PA announcements as part of our UT alert across campus too."

There are security cameras in place in some areas, but be aware and if you see someone that seems out of place, UT PD wants to get a call from you. "And hopefully that helps us, from being able to prevent something before it ever happens," said Lambert.

As a Senior at UT, Brian Bass said, "Just be smart and don't be walking around late at night by yourself. During the day you're pretty much fine, but once the sun starts going down, usually travel in a group and you'll be fine."

Right now UT Police has cameras predominately in the 16th street corridor, and that could expand in the near future, depending on their budget.

The upgrade to the blue light phones continues, majority should be switched over this fall, with the rest of the more 100 phones getting the upgrade next year.