Welcome Back

The start of the 2024 fall semester is here. We look forward to welcoming the Class of 2028 and all of our returning students. As we get ready for a new academic year, we want to cover a few topics of interest and importance. The Department of Public Safety has been hard at work over the summer completing projects and preparing for the fall.

Emergency Notification System Updates

On March 29, Bucknell joined the growing list of institutions targeted by bad actors in a swatting incident. The active shooter hoax highlighted some opportunities for changes to our emergency alert system. Results of the  Emergency Alert Experience Survey and recommendations from University administration factored into the changes currently underway, with an Aug. 14 targeted completion date. 

The four common themes that emerged in the survey responses from students, parents and employees include mandatory enrollment in the emergency alert system; more training for students and employees; enhancement of emergency policies and communication; and more frequent communications during an event. We are addressing the first three themes, as decisions on communication frequency during an event are situationally dependent. The following improvements have been or are in the process of being implemented.

Mandatory Enrollment

• We worked with Information Technology to transition from optional emergency notification sign-up to automatically importing emergency contact information for all employees and students into the Rave system. 
• While there is currently no way to automatically sign up parents to receive emergency campus notifications, we  continue to explore this request. In the meantime, we conducted an aggressive education campaign advising students to enter their parents’ phone numbers.

Enhanced Emergency Policies and Communication

• We have contracted with Alertus, a third-party vendor, to integrate the loudspeaker/siren system with Rave. This will allow us to use the loudspeaker system seamlessly. The system also allows for University-owned laptops and computers to be “taken over” in an emergency, meaning that those devices would automatically display the emergency alert message. We plan on testing the system on August 14th. We currently have the ability to send messages through the BSAFE app, Alertus, email, phone call, desktop takeover and text, all through Rave. 
• We worked with our radio vendor to fix a patching issue that impaired agency communication and tested it to ensure it works. 
• We continue to promote the use of the BSAFE app, which contains videos and emergency information for students and employees to review. We await approval of an updated emergency guide for the campus community and a separate guide for University administrators. 
• We have created new active shooter video content for the BSAFE app that will include several new spaces on campus.

The investigation is ongoing and has several layers. We continue to work with the FBI to identify a suspect we can charge.

New Staff

We welcomed the following new team members to our department since May:

Tonya Gridley, dispatcher

Kyle Dawber, dispatcher

We welcomed back Jaivin Shively, who graduated from the police academy in June.

Parking

We encourage everyone to be mindful of the parking rules and regulations. We have not made any parking changes this year.  We will resume normal academic year parking enforcement on August 12, 2024.

• As a reminder, we use License Plate Recognition technology and we require your license plate to be visible when parking in a University-owned parking space. This means that only vehicles with a front license plate may back into these spaces.
• We have issued over 9,300 parking citations over the last two academic years related to students parking in staff lots. During this time, we towed over 100 vehicles each year for excessive parking citations. Vehicles will be towed after their fifth citation during an academic year. We strongly encourage everyone to start the year off right and park appropriately and lawfully.

In listening to feedback from the community, we have heard an increasing number of complaints related to failure to stop at the intersection of 7th Street and Moore Avenue. We will engage in more stop sign-related traffic enforcement. Please be aware that the cost of this traffic citation with all fines and fees is $171. It is important to remember that pedestrians have the right of way at intersections in Pennsylvania. Anyone riding a bicycle or scooter must also obey the rules of the road and come to a complete stop. All members of our community should be alert when crossing the roadway and avoid being distracted by a cell phone.

BSAFE App

We have updated some of the content within the BSAFE app since the spring semester. You may need to sign out of the app to allow the content to update and then sign back in. We have added seven new active shooter videos. We are working toward finalizing and updating the emergency preparedness content. If you have not downloaded the app, we encourage you to do so as soon as possible.

Training

• An active shooter Powerpoint is now available in EDGE for all employees to review. It was sent to all employees on April 24 and will be assigned to review on an annual basis. A student training on active shooter situations will be uploaded into Moodle later this month. 
• We have offered additional open training hours for employees over the summer, including early morning and evening sessions. We offered 14 ALICE active shooter training sessions to the campus community and two personal self-defense classes. 
• We are working with Student Affairs to encourage all first-year students to take our ALICE active shooter training. 
• On Aug. 14, we will host our second annual active shooter drill in Academic West. This drill will include the Pennsylvania State Police, the Buffalo Valley Police Department, the Union County Sheriff’s Office, Evangelical Hospital and the William Cameron Engine Co.
• Over the summer we have engaged in hundreds of hours of staff professional development. All officers and community service officers completed Campus Ally Training led by Kristen Gibson, associate director of interpersonal violence prevention & advocacy. 
• We constantly review our training to ensure we are engaged in the most current law enforcement practices. We are sending team members for training to become instructors in Integrating Communications, Assessment and Tactics, or ICAT. This innovative, evidence-based approach to use of force affirms our commitment to de-escalation and doing everything within our power to resolve situations peacefully if possible. The entire department will be trained on these principles this fall.
• The Active Bystander Intervention for Law Enforcement, or ABLE, is another research-based program that we plan to incorporate. We are currently applying for department certification. 
• As a reminder, we offer many training sessions for the campus community. We had some delays in getting our campus academy up and running, but Assistant Director Grobes has done an amazing job creating the curriculum. The BUPD Citizens Police Academy (BCPA) is an innovative community-engagement initiative designed to foster open dialogue, build mutual trust, and facilitate critical conversations between law enforcement officers and the community they serve. This program is committed to transparency, accountability and collaborative efforts toward much-needed police reform. To request training, use the QR code or email us at publicsafety@bucknell.edu.
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