In Their Own Words: Campus Protection Pros Tell Us About Their Emergency Notification Successes
We asked the 2022 Campus Safety Emergency Notification Survey participants to tell us about the successes they’ve had with their programs. Here’s what some of them had to say.
Photo via Adobe, by Dmitry Kavalchuk
Here is what some of the participants in this year’s Campus Safety Emergency Notification Survey said about the successes they’ve experienced with their mass notification programs.
- When we had severe snow storms, the email alert to leave before the snow fell (for those who were able) worked well.
- We were able to integrate our voice over fire alarm system with our mass notification platform.
- The messaging has been able to keep people clear of crime scenes for processing and of hazmat situations (floods and downed branches).
- Able to reach approximately 70% all registered staff via phone message within 1 hour of initiating alert.
- All staff are enrolled in mass notification system.
- Excellent service from our system provider.
- Our messaging app allows for auto sending of messages for tornado or life threatening weather. It auto navigates location based on NWS mapping and will send to people within that geographical location. It bases on home and work addresses and will also include people working remote in other areas of the country/world. As the NWS map moves, additional alerts will be sent if more people are within the alert locations.
Download Results from the 2022 Campus Safety Emergency Notification Survey.
- Templates and protocols make the notifications easy and quick for those activating.
- Whenever we have a patient that elopes, we are able to send a mass email to all staff no matter their location by the method they sign up for, phone call, text or email.
- Building locked down successfully.
- Routine use has been successful
- Missing patient was found in less than 10 minutes after alert.
- We have included LE and dispatch into our mass notification for building lockdown alerts to activate quicker response.
- Notification systems span across our 1,200-acre campus.
- The campus pushes out crime notifications. My internal system is used to augment Fire Evacuations and other in building incidents.
- The text alerts work the best, we get more reach. The only issue is the opt-in.
- We recently added strobes to any high-volume (noise) areas of the school, to include CTC/shop areas, boiler rooms, etc.
- Was pivotal in communicating during the first 2 years of the Pandemic.
- Able to deliver emergency messages to students during heavy rains and thunderstorms.
- Traffic issues during monsoons were easily communicated to the community.
- In the last six months we have sent out notifications of sexual assaults that had occurred on/near campus. With each notification it has encouraged others and given them an avenue to report unreported sexual assaults that may have otherwise gone unreported. We were able to direct the reporting parties to those that could help them.
- Ability to secure 3 schools in response to criminal activity in the area.
- We currently use our phones and PA for all emergencies, except fire alarms through pull stations. Secretaries called for a Hold to ensure a situation in the hallway was kept secure and private. We will be updating this to an automated system within the next 6 mos.
- We had an incident where we needed to cancel school due to unexplained smoke in a few classrooms. After the notification went out, students were picked up in a timely and orderly manner.
- Integrating with HR system to make EMNS opt-out for all staff and providers.
Download Results from the 2022 Campus Safety Emergency Notification Survey.
Check out the results from some of our previous Emergency Notification Deep Dives:
Survey sponsored by:
If you appreciated this article and want to receive more valuable industry content like this, click here to sign up for our FREE digital newsletters!
About the Author
Robin Hattersley, Editor-in-Chief
Robin has been covering the security and campus law enforcement industries since 1998 and is a specialist in school, university and hospital security, public safety and emergency management, as well as emerging technologies and systems integration. She joined CS in 2005 and has authored award-winning editorial on campus law enforcement and security funding, officer recruitment and retention, access control, IP video, network integration, event management, crime trends, the Clery Act, Title IX compliance, sexual assault, dating abuse, emergency communications, incident management software and more. Robin has been featured on national and local media outlets and was formerly associate editor for the trade publication Security Sales & Integration. She obtained her undergraduate degree in history from California State University, Long Beach.
Related Content
Leading in Turbulent Times: Effective Campus Public Safety Leadership for the 21st Century
This new webcast will discuss how campus public safety leaders can effectively incorporate Clery Act, Title IX, customer service, “helicopter” parents, emergency notification, town-gown relationships, brand management, Greek Life, student recruitment, faculty, and more into their roles and develop the necessary skills to successfully lead their departments. Register today to attend this free webcast!
