Following a fall semester full of various University of Arizona Police Department UAlerts including robberies, shootings, aggravated assaults and suspicious men in dorms, a week before classes end University of Arizona Chief of Police Chris Olson sent an email and released a video to the university community announcing new updates to the system many students deem “flawed.”
The new updates include:
Immediate alerts
Students can expect to receive the first UAlert about an incident sooner, as UAPD 911 dispatchers are now authorized to initiate UAlert messages through the system upon confirmation of an immediate threat to the health or safety of the campus community.
This comes after a common complaint from many students following the on-campus shooting death of Pima Community College student Minhaj Jamshidi, being that the university community was not made aware of the incident until thirty minutes after the fact.
Frequent updates
UAlert notifications will continue to be sent to provide timely updates during an ongoing situation.
This new update was most recently seen in a UAlert of an aggravated assault that took place on Monday, Dec. 2 near campus on 406 N Fremont Ave., where there were six total messages sent about the incident.
Another incident that had frequent updates was the report of a suspicious male at Arizona-Sonora Residence hall. This incident sent a total of eight messages to students.
Essential information
UAlert notifications will continue to include essential information about what is happening, where it’s happening, what actions, if any, students should take and how to access available resources.
These messages usually share information such as suspect descriptions, if the suspects fled the area, what direction they have fled in, as well as if police are still on scene and if students should avoid the area or shelter in place.
Closing message
Once the immediate situation is resolved, a final UAlert notification titled “closing message” will be sent.
This also debuted in the Dec. 2 aggravated assault where the closing messages were clearly titled and provided resources for any students who may have been impacted by the incident.
The closing messages now serve as a more organized way to close incidents and replace the previous all clear messages that used to be sent.
The new message about the updates closed with information regarding how to receive UAlerts.
All students, faculty, staff and designated campus colleagues are automatically enrolled to receive UAlert notifications via email.
Students can also receive UAlert notifications on their cell phone via SMS text messaging, so long as your cell number is up to date in UAccess, and through the downloadable LiveSafe app.
Families and friends of university community members can also sign up for UAlert.For more information about UAlert, please visit safety.arizona.edu/ualert. For additional safety resources, visit safety.arizona.edu.
