Policy: Emergency Notifications and Timely Warnings Platteville Main Campus
UNIVERSITY POLICY: Health & Public Safety
Date Revised: February 22, 2022
Date Effective: September 2018
Senior Leader: Provost and Vice Chancellor for Administrative Services
Responsible University Official: Chief of University Police
Policy Owner: Chief of University Police
POLICY STATEMENT
REASON FOR POLICY
PROCEDURES
Emergency Notifications
- Outbreak of meningitis, norovirus or other serious illness;
- Approaching tornado, or other extreme weather conditions;
- Earthquake;
- Gas leak;
- Bomb Threat;
- Civil unrest or rioting;
- Explosion;
- Nearby chemical or hazardous waste spill.
B. In the event an emergency notification can be issued to a segment of the campus community, The University Police Department, in consultation with key administrative units, such as Facilities, Information Technology Services, and/or the local first-responder agencies, and public health agencies, and the National Weather Service, will make that determination based on the type of emergency, location, impact to community, and the overall safety and security of the campus. For example, a chemical spill in the Chemistry lab. In this scenario, it may be necessary to send out a notification to the occupants of Ottensmann Hall to evacuate and stay away from the building, but there may not be a need to send out a campus wide message.
C. Even if there is a decision to segment, there will be a continuous assessment of the situation and if needed additional segments of the campus may be notified.
G. A notification will not be issued if issuing a notification will, in the professional judgment of responsible authorities, compromise efforts to assist a victim or to contain, respond to, or otherwise mitigate the emergency.
For fires in any of the campus buildings, the automated Fire Alarm system will create a visual and audible alarm in the specific building where smoke and/or fire was detected. University Police will also hear this notification over the police radio frequency respond and investigate and contact the Fire Department if necessary. If it appears the fire from one building might spread to another, the University Police Department will contact a Supervisor to have a Rave Alert (Email/Text Alert) sent out to those that may be affected. For all other emergencies, University Police Department, UW-Platteville’s first responders, personnel will be the first to evaluate and analyze the incident to determine the scope of the emergency situation and resources needed, with the assistance of other key departments at the University (Facilities, ITS, Residence Life) and emergency response resources in the community (police, fire, ems, weather service, etc.). The Police Chief or designee will receive real-time updates from personnel responding or at the scene of any emergency related event when possible. Once the Police Chief or designee receives that information, UW-Platteville will utilize a current list of authorized employees that can send emergency communications (see below), to determine who will send that information out to the campus community.
H. An Emergency Notification will normally be distributed by text/email alert and any or all the methods listed below, depending on the segment of campus affected or size of the target audience required to receive the message. The Public Information Officer with approval of the Chief of Police or designee will initiate one or more of the following methods:
The University’s primary notification system is a campus-wide email text message and email blast to the UW-Platteville community; UW-Platteville has partnered with Rave Wireless, Inc. to provide emergency text and email messaging to the campus community. Rave’s Text and Email alert system is an “opt out” service for all students, meaning that at registration, students are automatically enrolled into the notification system and if a student chooses not to participate, that student would have to deactivate his/her account. For University employees, these text and email alerts are also an “opt out” service, but the University does not require that employees provide a cell phone number. Therefore, the Rave Text and Email alert system is discussed at all new employee orientations. Message posted on the home page of the UW-Platteville website Message posted through UW-Platteville’s Facebook and Twitter social media accounts; Message delivered through the University’s fire alarm system; In the event of a major campus incident, UW-Platteville will activate phone number 608.342.7000. This is a telephone number that provides a recorded message with current incident updates.
(Please see document below for a list of UW-Platteville staff with the authority to issue an Emergency Notification)
TIMELY WARNINGS
- Criminal homicide: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, manslaughter by negligence
- Sexual assault: rape, fondling, incest, statutory rape
- Robbery
- Aggravated assault
- Burglary
- Motor vehicle theft
- Arson
- Domestic violence
- Dating violence
- Stalking
- Weapons law violations
- Drug abuse violations
- Liquor law violations
- Hate Crimes (All the above) and;
- Larceny-theft
- Simple assault
- Intimidation
- Destruction/damage/vandalism of property
A. The following factors should be considered when determining whether to issue a Timely Warning:
- The location of the crime
- The nature of the crime (serious/non-serious, violent/non-violent)
- The nature of the threat (general threat versus limited threat to a specific person)
- Whether or not there is a continuing danger to the community or a continuing crime pattern.
- Aggravated Assault (cases involving assaults among known parties, such as two roommates fighting which results in an aggravated injury, will be evaluated on a case by case basis to determine if the individual is believed to be an on-going threat to the larger UW-Platteville community)
- Robbery involving force or violence (cases including pick pocketing and purse snatching will typically not result in the issuance of a Timely Warning, but will be assessed on a case by case basis)
- Sexual Assault (considered on a case by case basis depending on the facts of the case, when and where the incident occurred, when it was reported, and the amount of information known by the UW-Platteville Police Department)
B. When issuing a Timely Warning notice, some information may be withheld if there is a possible risk of compromising law enforcement efforts to investigate and/or solve the crime.
C. When the Department becomes aware of a situation that meets the criteria for a Timely Warning, the Officer on-duty will contact the University Police Chief or designee. The Police Chief or designee will work with UW- Platteville’s Public Information Officer to disseminate the following information
- Date and time or timeframe of the incident
- A brief description of the incident
- Information that will promote safety and potentially aid in the prevention of similar crimes
- Suspect description(s) when deemed appropriate and if there is sufficient detail. The description of subject will only be included in the alert if there is a sufficient amount of detail to describe the individual.
- Police agency contact information
- Other information as deemed appropriate by the Chief or designee
D. If the victim of the crime is a person, that person will not be identified by name in a Timely Warnings. Timely Warnings are issued as soon as the pertinent information is available to the University Police Chief or designee.
E. When other entities on campus learn of an incident in which a Timely Warning may be needed, he/she should share that information with the University Police Department by calling 911 or 608.342.1584 or stopping into the Police Department located at 135 Brigham Hall to determine if it meets the criteria for a Timely Warning.
- A campus-wide text message and email blast to the UW-Platteville community;
- Message posted on the home page of the UW-Platteville website;
- Message posted through UW-Platteville’s Facebook and Twitter social media accounts;
- Message delivered through the University’s fire alarm system;
- Message posted on the University’s Emergency Blog located at http://emergency.uwplatt.edu;
- Message delivered through UW-Platteville’s Update Line. In the event of a major campus incident, UW- Platteville will activate phone number 608.342.7000. This is a telephone number that provides a recorded message with current incident updates.
G. The University does not issue Timely Warnings if:
- The Chief of Police or designee determines there is no serious or continuing threat to the safety of UW- Platteville campus community.
- The subject(s) is apprehended and the threat of imminent danger to members of the UW–Platteville community have been mitigated by the apprehension.
- If a report was not filed with the University Police Department or if the University Police Department was not notified of the crime in a matter that would allow the department to post a “timely” Timely Warning to the community. A general guideline will include a report that is filed more than 7-10 days after the date of the alleged incident may not allow the department to post a “timely” Timely Warning to the community. This type of situation will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis and may fall under the Emergency Notification section of this policy.
STUDENT AND EMPLOYEE REGISTRATION FOR TIMELY WARNINGS, EMERGENCY NOTIFICATIONS, AND PIONEER ALERTS
Students and employees are automatically enrolled to receive Pioneer Alerts emergency text messages, unless they opt- out of the Rave Alert program. Student cell phone numbers are retrieved from the UW-Platteville PASS system. If an employee provides a cell phone number to Human Resources, he/she is automatically enrolled in the system as well. For employees that did not provide a cell phone number, or if a student chooses to add a parent, relative, or friend into the Rave Alert system, please register here: https://go.uwplatt.edu/rave
PIONEER ALERT, EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION, AND TIMELY WARNING SYSTEM TESTING
The Communications office, in conjunction with the UWPPD, test the Pioneer Alert text messaging and email system on a monthly basis. This test is completed on the first Wednesday of each month and it sent out campus wide.
FORMS/INSTRUCTIONS
No terms and definitions are associated with this policy.
ADDITIONAL CONTACTS
Subject | Contact | Phone | Fax/Email |
Primary Contact | Name | Phone | Fax/Email |
Chief of Police | Joe Hallman | 608.342.1584 | hallmanjo@uwplatt.edu |
Clery Coordinator | Jason Williams | 608.342.1584 | williaja@uwplatt.edu |
RELATED DOCUMENTS
REVISION HISTORY
SCHEDULED REVIEW