CINCINNATI — A community is mourning after three students were shot and killed at Michigan State University when a gunman opened fire on campus.
Locally, Tri-State universities want students to know they have plans in place to prevent active shootings and respond to them.
“We do look at everything that happens around the country to say, ‘What can we learn from that moving forward?” said University of Cincinnati Police Capt. David Hoffman. “It's something that we train all the time for.”
Hoffman said the university’s police department works with individual departments and colleges on campus to develop safety plans.
“We'll do assessments of their physical space and do scenario drills of how this would look,” he said. “You can train to that type of situation.”
The university has emergency dispatchers working 24/7. If students are unable to call 911, they can use the Bearcat Guardian application to chat directly with dispatchers. To learn more about the application, click here.
UC students can also request an “active threat presentation” to learn more about safety plans here. More details on the university’s procedures can be found here.
“We don't have the ability to track everyone who enters a public university at all times,” Hoffman said. “Obviously, we've got certain large gatherings. For instance, you see football games, where we understand how many people are going to be on campus that day. If there is a vulnerability, we address that through that planning.”
The university has an emergency alert system to notify students and staff during an emergency. Dispatchers can set off the system with the click of a single button.
Northern Kentucky University has a similar system to notify the campus community of a threat.
“We have an outdoor siren,” said NKU Police Chief John Gaffin. “We have what's called Norse Alert here where we can notify just about everyone on this campus in just a few seconds by text message by phone.”
NKU offers courses on the “Run, Hide, Fight” active shooter response too.
That guidance is similar across major universities. The procedure says that in the event of an active shooter, you should try to run first if you’re able to do so safely. If running is not possible, find a place to hide. Finally, as a last resort, attempt to fight.
While NKU police officers train with local police departments, Gaffin said university police departments are uniquely positioned to respond to threats on campus.
“To have that familiarity and have people who know that ‘day-in and day-out,’ that's just so helpful,” he said.
Gaffin said it takes everyone’s help to prevent tragedy. If you see something, say something.
“We have a kind of team of experts from across campus who can look at that and assess it and decide how to respond,” he said. “It's a very collaborative approach, and it makes sure that things aren't falling through the cracks.”
For more information on NKU’s active shooting response, click here.
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