The Cambridge Human and Civil Rights Committee recently held a hearing to address the security measures taken at the CambridgeSide Galleria in response to the Oct.4 kidnapping at knife point of a 19-year-old woman from the mall.

The woman was subsequently gangraped by four men, according to Cambridge police.

New security measures taken by mall management include installing additional security cameras and increasing security patrols of the mall's parking garage, as well as extending community-outreach programs to include several women's programs.

"I think that they have tried very hard to be responsive to concerns," said City Councillor Katherine Triantafillou, who chaired the hearing.

Representatives from CambridgeSide Galleria have met with representatives from the Cambridge Commission on the Status of Women, the Boston Rape Crisis Center and the Massachusetts Coalition of Battered Women.

Mall officials met with people from the Massachusetts Coalition of Battered Women in mid-November, according to Sylvia C. Guthrie, director of development at the coalition.

Guthrie described the meeting as an "introductory meeting so that the folks from the mall could get information about us and the work that we do."

The coalition is an umbrella group for domestic-violence programs throughout Massachusetts, Guthrie said.

The coalition has given the mall information, including brochures about personal safety and palm cards that list shelter hotline numbers, Guthrie said.

In terms of the future of the relationship between the mall and the coalition, Guthrie said, "We don't have a game plan yet."

The mall management also cited in a news release "enhancement of crisis communication with store managers and their staffs" as another measure taken to increase safety at the mall.

But not all store managers were aware of the mall management's attempts to increase communication regarding safety issues.

An assistant manager at the CVS located in the Galleria said he "[has not] seen anything" in terms of new safety policies directed at store managers.

A manager at a women's clothing store in the mall also said that she did not "know too much" about the new security measures in place at the mall.

Some store managers were more complimentary of the mall management's action in the face of the recent kidnapping.