Emergency Notification

I wanted to share a reminder with the campus community on how we(Public Safety) communicate emergencies.

Timely warnings. When Public Safety identifies or receives a report of a Clery reportable crime on or off campus that constitutes a serious or continuing threat to the campus community, we issue a campus-wide “timely warning” via email, text, phone call and potential use of the siren system, to all students, faculty and staff with “TIMELY WARNING” in the subject line. After a timely warning is issued, follow-up information will be shared as appropriate and as soon as possible. Timely warnings are a Clery requirement.

Emergency notifications. Upon confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous situation (e.g. weather alert, road closure, disease outbreak) occurring on campus that presents an immediate threat to the health or safety of students, faculty or staff, Public Safety or other campus partners may issue an emergency notification. The notification can be sent via email, text, use of the siren system and phone call, It may be sent to the entire campus or limited to a specific area deemed at risk.

For more information on Bucknell’s emergency communications, please visit our webpage.

Therapy Dog Graduation Celebration

First Amendment and Bucknell

As an institution, Bucknell is committed to respecting and protecting the rights of free expression by members of our community. As we navigate current world events and students express their views, it is important to understand that Public Safety does not take sides. As a sworn police agency, we must uphold the rights of all. We all have different opinions and viewpoints. What hopefully binds us together is our shared recognition of our individual humanity and identity. 

It is important to note that verbalizing differences of opinion and perspective should not automatically make us fearful of one another. While our freedom of expression policy allows for speech that may be viewed by some as distasteful, disrespectful or hurtful, it is often not illegal. The litmus test for law enforcement is to consider whether an individual’s words or deeds are inciting people to violence and whether there are true threats of violence in the speech. You may have heard the example of someone shouting “fire” in a crowded movie theater as a hoax. If no true fire exists and a person shouts “fire” to cause panic that results in injuries or a serious inconvenience, that speech would not be protected, and the individual may be charged with disorderly conduct. 

Signs and posters are often used during demonstrations, and they can also have words, images or statements that can be jarring. It is important to know that jarring does not always equal criminal. As law enforcement, we have to determine whether language is communicating a true threat and whether there is malicious intention toward an individual or group based on their perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation, or gender or gender identity. You can find a detailed description of what Pennsylvania considers to be ethnic intimidation here.

Our role is to not stifle free expression. The right to peaceful assembly as members of the community is also protected, but just like speech is also not an absolute. The University in its free expression policy has regulated locations on campus for peaceful assemblies. Our role is only to maintain the peace and never to take sides in healthy debates. 

The protection of assembly is covered in our internal policy manual under policy number 431.

I am sharing the information above during a critical time of thoughtful discourse and discussion on our campus. It is important to understand that our presence at events during my tenure has always been peaceful. Our presence should not be construed as supporting one side vs. another; we are there simply to act as peacekeepers. While some at events may look to us to take certain actions, we must follow the law and the Constitution, and be measured in our response. I believe as a community we can continue to have difficult discussions in a thoughtful way, understanding that reasonable people can disagree.

End of Year Report

While there will not be a blog report for January, we will release an end of year report highlighting statistics from the past year.

I want to close by wishing everyone a healthy and prosperous last month of the year and a Happy New Year!

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