January 2025
We hope everyone had a restful and restorative winter break. As we enter the spring semester, we look forward to celebrating another senior class who will graduate in May. Our annual report will be available soon and we hope you find it informative and helpful.
New Card Services Hours
We are excited to announce that Card Service will have expanded hours starting this semester. During the academic year, Card Services will be open from 7am to 9pm M-F. These expended hours will allow card replacements and event scheduling to occur later in the day.
2025 Trends
We remind members of our community to take some basic preventive measures to prevent theft. Keeping your valuables with you and not leaving them in common areas is a great way to not have your items stolen. Locking your vehicle and room door will also prevent theft. Finally, if you are ordering DoorDash, pick up your delivery promptly. Thefts are crimes of opportunity, but we can prevent them by taking these simple precautions.
Access device fraud, scams and other internet-based attacks were on the rise in 2024. If you receive an email with an offer that is too good to be true, do not enter your financial and banking information. Please check with us or IT before you respond or click on links. The level of sophistication that scammers will use will only increase. Whether they are able to get through your phone’s spam filter and send a text message, or hack an employee’s account and send an email, we must all remain vigilant. In all of our investigations with the exception of one case, the suspect(s) have all been from foreign countries. Some of common crimes we investigate include the following:
- Getting someone to share a personal photo and then extorting them to keep it from being released. Groups will use the image of someone else to initiate a conversation hoping that someone will send them a photo so they can blackmail them. We never recommend sending photos to someone you have not met in person.
- You are selling an item and the person who has reached out to purchase it from you states they need you to buy gift cards or wire them money to prove you are not a “bot” or someone trying to scam them. If you are selling something, giving money to the person who claims they want to buy something from you should be a major red flag.
- You receive an email stating that someone you love has been arrested, and you are asked to send money for their release. Bail does not work that way. No department or government agency will email you asking for bail money. Call your loved one before wiring money.
Parking
Parking Enforcement will resume in earnest the week of January 20th. We have some cold temperatures coming in. It can be tempting to want to park illegally. As a reminder, for towing purposes, parking citations totals are factored in for the entire academic year. If you have received more than 5 citations, or are approaching, we tow vehicles after 5 citations.
Parking on campus will continue to be a challenge, and we understand this can be frustrating for motorists. For reference, in 2020 we issued 1,108 student permits. In 2024 we issued 1,632 student permits. During this time, the only net gain to student parking has been changing the lot in front of Swartz from staff to students. We also issued over 4,000 visitor permits last year. While everyone wants the convenience of parking close to the building where they work, study or live, that is just not realistic given our infrastructure and the total number of available spaces. Our parking statistics for 2024 will be included in the annual report. We encourage all employees to call us instead of confronting someone they feel are engaged in illegal parking.
Public Safety Training
Public Safety has certified instructors on staff for the following classes:
ALICE Training® is the original civilian active shooter response training delivered with a trauma-informed approach in an age- and ability- appropriate way. More information can be found at ALICE Training Model.Class Length: 90 minutes
Max Attendees: No Limit
Cost: $0
AVADE® Personal Self-Defense provides informative, proactive prevention strategies and interventions that can help prevent and mitigate fear, conflict and aggression while creating a culture of safety. More information can be found at AVADE Workplace Violence Prevention.
Class Length: 90 minutes
Max Attendees: 12
Cost: $0Basic Car Maintenance is an opportunity to schedule an individual or group class intended to teach the basics of troubleshooting common car issues such as changing a tire, jumping a dead battery and checking the oil. This is a general overview and demonstration. Individual requests tailored to specific make and models may also be requested and will be accommodated, if possible.
Class Length: Varies
Max Attendees: Varies
Cost: $0
Deputy Diggs, thetherapy dog, is our not-so-secret weapon of mass affection! If you’d like to request a visit from Deputy Diggs for some snuggles or have him make an appearance at an event, just let us know!
Fraud Awareness teaches participants how to identify common tactics used to defraud and exploit the kindness of others.
Class Length: 30 minutes
Max Attendees: No Max
Cost: $0
Heartsaver® CPR AED (group requests only) is a classroom, video-based, instructor-led course that teaches adult CPR, AED use and choking relief. This course uses AHA’s research-proven practice-while-watching technique, which allows students to mimic accurate skills being performed on the video while instructors provide feedback and guide the students’ skill learning. More information can be found at American Heart Association Heartsaver.
Class Length: 90 minutes
Max Attendees: 6-8 per class — we can schedule multiple classes to certify everyone in a group
Cost: $20 per participant (this covers the cost of necessary supplies and the $17 fee charged by AHA for certification card registration). Invoice will be sent directly from Evangelical Community Hospital on behalf of the American Heart Association.
Narcan/Naloxone Administration & Distribution in collaboration with Sheila Packer RN, Evangelical Community Hospital Community Educator. Participants in this training course will learn how to recognize the signs of an opioid overdose and administer the opioid overdose reversal drug Naloxone. Narcan kits will be provided to all participants.
Class Length: 60 minutes
Max Attendees: No Max
Cost: $0
Situational Awareness teaches participants methods and strategies to to help them be prepared rather than paranoid when dealing with challenging situations.
Class Length: 60 minutes
Max Attendees: No Max
Cost: $0
Specified Topic – General Public Safety is fortunate to have many team members with a wide variety of experience and expertise. If there’s a topic that you would like more information on, or for any engagement opportunity you’d like Public Safety to participate in, send us a request at publicsafety@bucknell.edu.
Use the link to sign up for a class
2024 Annual Report
The Public Safety annual report will be released soon. The report highlights some key initiatives from this past year. You will also find select information related to our calls for service and training information.